Middlesbrough head into Saturday's game (15:00 GMT) having won all four of their Championship matches since Kim Hellberg took over as head coach and are now only five points behind the leaders Coventry.
Bristol City are 11th in the table, four points short of the play-offs having failed to win any of their past three league outings.
Bristol City are unbeaten in their past seven league games against Middlesbrough (W5 D2), winning each of the last four in a row.
Middlesbrough have lost their past two away league games against Bristol City – only once have they lost three in a row against them (March 2013-December 2017).