Boro are assessing the midfielder's situation on a gameby- game basis and, with Premier League football still only an outside chance, the 1- 0 win over Sheffield Wednesday has not altered things.
Manager Gordon Strachan is unlikely to be given the goahead to hand his captain his 100th appearance for the club triggering a £1m payment due to Portsmouth unless Boro find themselves in a play-off place.
The only way the situation will change is if Portsmouth back down over their firm stance that the terms of the agreement signed in the summer of 2007 should remain in place.
Given Portsmouth's financial plight, that remains unlikely, even though the club's administrator, Andrew Andronikou, has effectively been asking for some Pompey players to waiver similar clauses in their contracts.
It emerged over the weekend that six Portsmouth players were due to play their last match in yesterday's FA Cup semi-final with Tottenham unless they waived their rights to big cash payments.
That is something Portsmouth, relegated over the weekend and deep in administration trouble, would be unable to cover, yet Andronikou expects Boro to pay the £1m due if O'Neil played his 100th match.
But Strachan said: The situation with Gary O'Neil might change.
We'll get together the footballing side and the financial side and have a look at it. I really don't know what will happen. It's not frustrating because that's the deal and we'll get on with it.
Strachan's side has closed the gap on sixth-placed Swansea, who have won just one of their last eight. And Boro have done it with players playing through the pain barrier.
You've got to remember that we're playing with people like Barry Robson, Rhys Williams and Julio Arca, who are playing with injuries but can't get a rest, said Strachan.
We have no other people to put in. As a manager, if you're getting the best from your players, you can't come and say we should be doing this or that.
The passing could have been better at times but a lot of credit goes to Sheffield Wednesday, who pressed the game. In the last ten minutes, I do think we kept the ball well when it would be hard to dismiss the ball. There's room to improve but you can't ask for more work rate, that's for sure.
Neither Boro goalkeeper Brad Jones nor Sheffield Wednesday's Lee Grant had many saves to make, but Strachan was still encouraged by the performance his players put in.
It is always nice to win, we put a lot of work into this one, he said. We played some nice football at times but graft and determination got us there.
It was entertaining for people to watch. There was plenty of action in either box from two teams who were trying to win.
It wasn't Real Madrid against Barcelona but it was a decent Championship game.
Source: Northern Echo
Source: Northern Echo