No new injury worries for Aitor Karanka as Middlesbrough prepare to face Stoke
Middlesbrough head coach Aitor Karanka has no fresh injury problems as he prepares to send out his team for the first time in the Premier League against Stoke.
Defenders Dani Ayala, who has recovered from a troublesome ankle injury, and Bernardo Espinosa have returned to training after minor knocks and are available.
That leaves only midfielder Grant Leadbitter (hernia surgery) and full-back James Husband (dislocated shoulder) missing for promoted Boro.
Karanka has warned people not to expect Middlesbrough to 'do a Leicester' as he focuses solely on Premier League survival.
The promoted Teessiders finally secured their return to the top flight after a seven-year wait, and they are intent on remaining there following a lengthy and at times painful exile.
Karanka walked into a packed room when he arrived for his pre-match press conference, a measure of the heightened profile he can expect this season, and one journalist even apologised for the fact that it was his first visit.
That was not lost on the former Real Madrid defender when asked if his sights for the campaign would amount to anything more than simple survival.
He said: "No, no. My aim today is to finish the league to see him [pointing to the journalist] here next season again. If I am here next season with him, it will be perfect.
"We can't make the mistake to think we are Leicester because Leicester won [the title] last season. That doesn't happen often.
"The main aim for us is to stay in the Premier League, to build the conditions to be here a long time because we have been working. It's been really, really tough for the last two and a half years.
"The club has been working for the last seven years, so we need to keep our heads down, we need to know who we are and just focus on the following game."
Stoke's former England right-back Glen Johnson is doubtful with a quadriceps injury.
Wales international Joe Allen, the B#13million summer signing from Liverpool, is in contention to make his debut while striker Marko Arnautovic (hamstring) and midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri (leg) have been passed fit.
Forward Jon Walters is available after being eased through pre-season but midfielders Stephen Ireland (broken leg) and Ibrahim Afellay (knee) are long-term absentees.
Stoke boss Mark Hughes hopes to give Middlesbrough an early lesson in the realities of Premier League life.
Hughes said: "It is not one you would have chosen, facing a newly-promoted team with all the energy and confidence of winning week-in, week-out from the previous year.
"That will still be their mindset, they'll be positive, but we have just got to make them aware, quickly, what the Premier League is all about.
"We are an accomplished Premier League team in our own right and we have the ability to do that.
"The crowd will be on a high and we will have to deal with that but we are looking forward to it.
"We are taking 3,000 fans ourselves so we are going to get great backing. Our fans are great here but away from home they go that extra mile for us. There won't be a situation where we feel isolated out there."
Source: PAR
