JASON STEELE would like to join Blackburn Rovers on a permanent basis, having accepted he has almost certainly played his final game for Middlesbrough.

Steele is currently on a season-long loan at Blackburn, and with his Boro contract due to expire at the end of the season, the 24-year-old will find himself as a free agent next summer unless Aitor Karanka makes a surprise decision to offer him a new deal.

Given Karanka’s eagerness to freeze Steele out of the first-team picture from an early stage of his managerial tenure, there appears little chance of the pair patching up their differences.

That would mean Steele leaving for nothing next summer, which would be a disappointing end to the former England Under-21 international’s relationship with his only full-time club.

The Newton Aycliffe-born shot-stopper still has a great deal of affection for Middlesbrough, although there will be no emotional homecoming this weekend as he is ineligible to turn out against his permanent employers.

He has produced a string of impressive performances for Blackburn after a somewhat shaky start to his loan spell, and with Rovers boss Gary Bowyer already discussing the possibility of a summer move, his long-term future could well lie across the Pennines.

“I am happy here and I am just happy playing football and to be involved with a team and a squad as good as we have here,” said Steele. “I don’t live down here, but if things were to change, then that would change.

“We’ll see what happens, and hopefully if the club wants to do that (agree a permanent move), it will get sorted. And if not, I still love it here and I’m really thankful for the opportunity I’ve been given.”

Steele’s recent displays have helped Blackburn record a run of just one defeat from their last 11 matches. The sequence has lifted them to sixth in the table, and thrust them into the heart of the promotion battle with more than a third of the season gone.

A win at the Riverside would see them leapfrog Middlesbrough and potentially take them into an automatic promotion place, and while Steele’s absence will be a blow, their first-choice shot-stopper is confident his replacement, Simon Eastwood, will prove a more than able deputy.

“It’s frustrating I won’t be able to play, but it’s just one of those things,” said Steele. “Hopefully, one day I’ll get to play for us against Middlesbrough.

“I think whoever plays in my place, whether it be Easty (Eastwood), what with him being on the bench, will do a good job. I’ve known and played against Easty since I was a kid, and he’s a top, top keeper.”