SUMMER signing Alex Baptiste will make his first Middlesbrough start as the club kick-off their pre-season preparations at York City this lunchtime.
Baptiste, who can play in a range of defensive positions, is expected to start at right-back, with Aitor Karanka set to name completely different teams for each 45 minutes of the game at Bootham Crescent.
Boro will field a reasonably strong starting line-up, with the likes of Dimi Konstantopoulos, Grant Leadbitter and Kike all involved.
However, Karanka will also run the rule over a number of the younger players who were part of last season's reserves league success.
Defender Dael Fry, midfielders Callum Cooke and Lewis Maloney, and striker Junior Mondal will all start the game, with Bradley Fewster, Jonathan Burn, Adam Jackson, Harry Chapman and Mark Kitching named on the substitutes' bench.
York: Flinders; Swann, Winfield, McCombe, Nolan; Berrett, Penn, Platt, Straker; Oliver, Trialist A.
Middlesbrough (starting line-up): Konstantopoulos; Fry, Baptiste, Ayala, Husband; Maloney, Leadbitter, Cooke, Wildschut; Kike, Mondal.
Subs: Mejias (gk), Ripley (gk), Fewster, Bennett, Burn, Jackson, Friend, Clayton, Kitching, Chapman, Tomlin, Reach.
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