Aitor Karanka will assess the mental state and fitness of three of his key men before finalising his Middlesbrough team for Saturday’s visit of Fulham.

The Boro boss knows the game with the Cottagers marks the start of another hectic run of seven matches inside 22 days so the international fortnight has been important to his side’s recovery process.

However, despite feeling that his squad needed the two week interruption to the Championship’s schedule, he still has some big issues to consider before naming his starting line-up to face Kit Symons’ side.

His biggest concerns are Albert Adomah and Cristhian Stuani; both are only due back from international duty with Ghana and Uruguay respectively in the next 24 hours so it could be decided to give them extra recovery time knowing a trip to Cardiff on Tuesday is also on the horizon.

Adomah scored for Ghana in a 1-1 draw with Canada in Washington DC on Tuesday and is only due back to the training ground in the next 24 hours.

It is a similar scenario facing Stuani, given the forward played two full games for Uruguay against Colombia and Bolivia in World Cup qualifiers.

And, with David Nugent nearing full fitness from the hamstring niggle which left him on the bench at Reading on October 3, Karanka knows he does have alternatives to play in Adomah and Stuani’s roles.

Karanka must decide whether to recall Emilio Nsue, who pulled out of Equitorial Guinea’s friendly with Kosovo, at right-back ahead of Tomas Kalas after the Chelsea loan man’s return from international duty with the Czech Republic.

And the Middlesbrough head coach said: “We won seven games but if you start to think it is easy it will be difficult. After Reading we know how difficult it is and we have to take the last games as an example to keep going.

“We know and we have to be ready for the next run of games. We have had time to take a break, but after Monday we don’t have one second to rest.”

Middlesbrough are already guaranteed to make at least one change to the team which lost at Reading. Ben Gibson is likely to slot in as a replacement for Fernando Amorebieta, who is ineligible under the terms of his loan from Craven Cottage.