CRISTHIAN STUANI and Jordan Rhodes are both injury doubts for Middlesbrough’s weekend game at Everton.

Stuani is still struggling with the groin injury he sustained in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace, and will be checked over by Boro’s medical staff again in the morning.

Rhodes, who was an unused substitute in the Palace defeat, suffered a knock to his knee in training earlier today and is a major doubt ahead of Saturday’s early-evening kick-off at Goodison Park.

Boro head coach Aitor Karanka said: “We’ll have to see with a couple of players. Stuani finished the last game with a couple of problems in his groin, and Jordan Rhodes took a knock on his knee this morning. I will have to check with the doctor tomorrow about both players.”

Karanka watched his side suffer their first league defeat of the season last weekend, but he has been happy with his players’ response since and is confident there will be a positive reaction at the weekend.

He said: “We have all had to adapt to being in the Premier League. We were unbeaten, but maybe on Saturday we realised it was a wake-up call to say we are in the Premier League and it is not easy.

“We have to learn from our mistakes and make sure our intensity is at the right level. We have to keep our organisation, and the best way to settle in and be confident and patient is to keep adding points on the table.”

Everton beat Boro in the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup last season, comprehensively outplaying their opponents as Gerard Deulofeu and Romelu Lukaku scored.

Ronald Koeman’s side have made an unbeaten start to the current campaign, and while Lukaku hogged the headlines by scoring a hat-trick in Monday’s 3-0 win at Sunderland – a game Karanka attended – the Boro boss expects Everton to pose threats all over the pitch on Saturday.

He said: “I went to the game, but I left after Everton scored their second goal. We played against Everton last bseason, so we know they are a really good team. They have improved their team, and they have a really good and experienced manager.

“They have Lukaku, but they also have (Yannick) Bolasie, Deulofeu, (Ross) Barkley…I don’t how many players. They are unbeaten with ten points on the table, and it is a game where we will have to be at 150 per cent if we want to compete.”