Rhys Williams named Boro captain

Qantas Socceroo Rhys Williams has been named captain of his English Championship side Middlesbrough ahead of the new season, while Scott McDonald could be on his way out of the club.

Qantas Socceroo Rhys Williams has been named captain of his English Championship side Middlesbrough ahead of the new season, while Scott McDonald could be on his way out of the club.

Williams, 24, has been with the Teeside club since 2008 and Boro manager Tony Mowbray has marked the Australia midfielder as the man to lead his team.

"Rhys will be captain and hopefully it will help to bring him on,” Mowbray said.

“We want him to take that in to the dressing room and hopefully it will help Rhys and the team.

"There is a respect for him in the dressing room and his performances last year warranted that. He has some growth in him still, he is a fabulous talent and we will try to harness it."

"Rhys is a talent that needs harnessing and focusing so we can get him to his peak. This is a way of honing his concentration every game to get him leading them out every week."

On McDonald, Mowbray admitted the club might look to sell the reportedly high-earning striker to balance the books after bringing in seven new players during the offseason but that they had received no offers for the sometime Socceroo, who was this week called up for the friendly against Scotland.

“Scott has to continue to work hard,” Mowbray said. “He has to come in with two years left on his contract and work hard to get in the team.

"There's been no interest in Scott. There's different levels of interest, the agents might be ringing up, but then there's a club phoning up and so far there has not been a club who has rang up about any of our players, other than for some of our younger ones on loan. There has been no official interest in our players."