WITH three games of the Championship season to go, Middlesbrough head coach Aitor Karanka concedes the time for rotating his team is over.

Boro host Ipswich tomorrow to kick-off of a run-in that will also feature games against Birmingham and promotion rivals Brighton, and with the Teessiders boasting a two-point advantage over both Burnley and Brighton, three victories will guarantee them a place in the Premier League.

Karanka has spent most of the season chopping and changing his team in an attempt to guard against injury and burn-out, and rarely selects the same starting line-up for two games in succession.

He might well have to make changes tomorrow, with George Friend and Gaston Ramirez both serious doubts after picking up injuries in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Burnley, but he will not be switching things around simply to protect players for future matches.

“It is a completely different position now,” said the Boro head coach. “I have been criticised for my rotations, but we are not in the same situation now.

“If you are playing in December, January or February, you are having to cope with a lot of games. Now, there is no time for rotations. This is the time to play with the best players because we just have three games to go and the players do not need to rest. They want to play, and they are ready to play even though we have had eight games in a month.”

On paper, tomorrow’s game should be the easiest of Boro’s remaining three matches. They have won 16 of their 21 home games so far this season, and take on an Ipswich side whose only realistic chance of a play-off place disappeared on Tuesday when they failed to beat Fulham at Portman Road.

Mick McCarthy’s side effectively have nothing to play for, but Karanka claims that while his experience of other countries is that teams switch off if they are not competing for either promotion or relegation in the final weeks of the season, things are markedly different in England.

Boro’s hopes of automatic promotion were extinguished by a Fulham side languishing in mid-table 12 months ago, and he fully expects Ipswich’s players to be as motivated as ever when they visit the Riverside this weekend.

That will make life more difficult for Middlesbrough, but the same will be true when it comes to the challenges facing Burnley and Brighton this weekend. Burnley travel to their Lancashire neighbours Preston this evening, with Brighton heading to already-relegated Charlton tomorrow, and Karanka is confident that neither promotion rival will have a simple task.

“I have been here for two years, and in all that time, I cannot find a team in England that was playing for nothing,” he said. “Always, they play for their pride or for something. That is one thing that, for me, is amazing in this country.

“Sometimes, when the team that is supposedly playing for nothing plays against you it can be bad because they play with the same intensity. But then when we are hoping for something from Preston or Charlton, it is good because we know both of those teams will play with everything. For that reason, it is fair for everybody.”

The absence of Friend and Ramirez would be a major blow, with both players due to be assessed this morning. Ramirez has a chance of being involved despite injuring his calf in Tuesday’s game at Turf Moor, but Friend is extremely unlikely to feature after damaging his hamstring.

Ritchie de Laet would be the logical choice to slot in at left-back having replaced Friend at Burnley, and Stewart Downing would be the likeliest replacement for Ramirez in the number ten role if the Southampton loanee was to be ruled out.

Cristhian Stuani is another option for an attacking midfield position, with the Uruguayan available again after serving a retrospective three-match ban for an elbowing offence in the recent win over Preston.

“It is good for us because it is another important player, even if he was to come from the bench,” said Karanka. “He is a good player if we are tired and he comes on. Maybe his season has not been amazing, but he has really good spirit and I am sure he is going to be important in the last three games.”

Stuani watched Tuesday’s game from the away end at Turf Moor, and while a double muscular tear sustained while on international duty with Uruguay has affected his season, he could still prove an influential figure in the remaining three games.

“The injury came at a bad time,” said Karanka. “Last season with Kike Garcia was more or less the same. He started really well, but then when we expected that he was going to keep scoring goals, he didn’t score.

“With Cristhian, it was more or less the same. He scored a few goals in the space of a month-and-a-half, but then he went to the national team, got injured, and that made it difficult for us.

“We lost him for a lot of games, and after that period, he has not been the same. But he is a really good player, he is experienced and he is used to playing in important games. So for that reason, it is important for us to have him back.”