SAM McQueen was stretchered off while playing for Middlesbrough against Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup tonight.

The homegrown Saints star was screaming in pain after falling heavily while trying to prevent Palace’s Jeffrey Schlupp from reaching an Andros Townsend cross.

His leg was caught awkwardly in the ground as he fell and he immediately signalled to the bench that he was in trouble.

The 23 year-old, who joined Middlesbrough on a season-long loan at the end of August, was replaced by George Saville in the 28th minute.

A Middlesbrough fan tweeted: “Dunno what happened to Sam McQueen there, but they’ve had to turn off the pitch mic because he was screaming so loudly. Sounded absolutely horrible. Leg in a brace now. Looks like a bad one.”

Left-back McQueen made the last of his 20 Premier League appearances (including six starts) for Saints at the end of last season.

The Southampton-born former Mountbatten schoolboy, who was spotted by Saints playing for Oakwood Rangers as an eight-year-old, made his debut for his hometown club in 2014.

He is under contract to Saints until 2021 and was making the third start of his loan spell under Tony Pulis, Middlesbrough’s manager since last December.

Middlesbrough went on to win 1-0.

Pulis hopes McQueen's injury is not as bad as it looked.

“It’s a knee injury, but at this stage, we’re not really sure exactly what it is,” he said.

“He’ll go for a scan tomorrow. At the moment, it’s fingers crossed it’s not too serious.”

The last-16 tie was goalless when McQueen went off.

But Lewis Wing blasted Middlesbrough into the quarter-finals as his first senior goal for the club dumped Premier League Palace out of the competition.

The midfielder, who was playing Northern League football for Shildon and working in a factory 20 months ago, thumped home a 25-yard piledriver in first-half stoppage time to clinch victory for Sky Bet Championship Boro in front of a crowd of 11,850 at the Riverside Stadium.

Middlesbrough were drawn against Burton Albion in the last eight but McQueen looks set to miss out on the chance to play against Saints teammate Jake Hesketh, who is enjoying a successful loan spell with the League One club.