MIDDLESBROUGH'S goalkeeper plans for next month will soon become clear, with the club braced to find out whether both Seny Dieng and Tom Glover will be away on international duty in January - and Michael Carrick insisting he's calm and well prepared regardless of the situation.

Dieng is in line to be called-up by Senegal for the African Cup of Nations, while Glover is in contention to be part of the Australia squad for the Asian Cup - though Boro's deputy keeper was left out of the squad for the last Socceroos get-together.

Glover will be in goal for Boro at Port Vale on Tuesday night in the Carabao Cup quarter-final and could yet keep his place for Saturday's Championship visit of West Brom, with Carrick still awaiting a definitive verdict on the injury Dieng suffered in the dying minutes of the win at Swansea City.

Jamie Jones - who joined in the summer - is Boro's third choice keeper, but if both Dieng and Glover are away next month, Carrick must decide whether to recall one of Liam Roberts, Sol Brynn or Zach Hemming, who are all out on loan.

"It won't be long (before Boro find out about Dieng and Glover call-ups)," said Carrick.

"We’re obviously getting our plans in place. It will depend on how Seny goes and Tom wasn’t in Australia’s last squad. So there is a lot of ifs and buts. We’ll take that as it comes.

"I'm fine about it, we have good goalkeepers. Yeah, there's a possibility of one or two of them going away, there's a possibility of them not as well depending on what happens with the squads. We'll obviously have a plan for both scenarios.

"Jamie (Jones) is one of our options. He's a good goalkeeper, a fantastic goalkeeper, he's been in and around the group and a massive part of what we do every day in training. He's one of the options, we have a number of options and plans to go down.

"There's certainly no panic. It will pan out and we'll be ready."

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Dieng's injury is the latest worry for Carrick, who won't have any of his injured players back in contention to face Port Vale.

"Seny felt his thigh when he slipped taking either a goal-kick or free-kick. We're still assessing that," said the head coach.

"Hopefully it won't be long but at this stage we're still waiting on results."

Glover would have played at Port Vale on Tuesday regardless, with the Aussie having kept goal in all four of Boro's Carabao Cup ties so far.

And he has the full backing of Carrick if - depending on Dieng's injury - he now has a run in the side.

“Tom has done well because it’s not always easy to only play a game every four-to-six weeks but it shows the standard of the training and his own professionalism really," said Carrick.

"His concentration levels as well, because he always has to be ready. He came on and made a big punch at the end there on Saturday. I’m sure he was sat on the bench not really expecting to come on, but he did and he did a couple of things where he showed he is really dialled in and credit to him for that because that’s not easy.

"He’s shown a lot of good things, Tom, and exactly why he is here and part of the group. He wants to take that next opportunity when it comes.

“He’s 100% got my backing. He’s a good goalkeeper Tom, and it’s exactly why we brought him to the club to be part of the squad. At some stage, whoever is going to play, anyone in the squad, we always knew they would all play a big part in someway. I’ve got no problems with whoever plays."

Asked how he deals with man-managing a second choice goalkeeper, where match opportunities can't always be promised, Carrick said: “I think that’s just the nature of the position in many ways. I know the boys understand that. It’s very similar to the rest of the squad still, when we’ve spoken about sometimes not knowing when your next chance is going to come then all of a sudden something happens in a game of football, or over a period of time, and all of s sudden you’re playing.

"You’ve always got to be ready, but I appreciate it is even more so for goalkeepers a challenge because you always need to be on that edge and you can’t just turn that on and off."