THE saga of Emerson's future with Middlesbrough took another twist yesterday when it emerged that the midfielder will miss tonight's Premiership visit of Leicester because he is back in Brazil.

The reason is again his 21 year old wife who is reluctant to settle in Middlesbrough. Last week Emerson admitted she was unhappy but, dismissing all speculation about his future as a mixture of press speculation and misunderstanding, said he expected her to return to England on Sunday.

However, sources close to the player said he received a telephone call on Friday to say she did not want to leave Brazil.

Emerson was due to make his return from a three match suspension at the Riverside stadium tonight in a game for which Middlesbrough have seven players injured, including Juninho. However, instead of naming Emerson on the team sheet yesterday, Bryan Robson was again forced to talk about the Brazilian's future.

"There are only two ways this can work - Emerson plays for us or he's back on a beach in Brazil. He signed a four year contract here and he's not for sale."

Later Robson added: "His wife is over there and he was given permission to go and pick her up. He will probably be back tomorrow and then we can sit down and talk about the problems."