Steven Schumacher will make changes to his Stoke City side for the Carabao Cup second round tie against Middlesbrough this evening, but he will still insist that he gets 100 per cent from every player, with travelling supporters in mind.

With priorities in the Championship for both sides, both managers have admitted ahead of the Riverside meeting that they will have to make changes. They both also have long away trip to follow this cup game at the weekend – at Cardiff for Boro and Plymouth Argyle for Stoke.

Schumacher’s options mean he is likely to travel to Teesside with the same 20-man squad as the weekend defeat to West Brom, though Ashley Phillips is in contention to make his debut at centre-half after joining on loan from Spurs on Friday, while Brighton loanee Andrew Moran could make his full debut in midfield. Boro academy graduate Ben Gibson is unlikely to be risked in the game.

Setting his expectations for it though, Schumacher told our sister site Stoke Live: “I can’t take a different squad, we haven’t got enough players because of injury. We’ll have to take a similar squad and freshen it where we can. It wouldn’t be wise to ask those lads who have put in a whole 90 minutes, every one, to go again on Tuesday because that was a tough game against West Brom.

“I’m sure Middlesbrough will be the same and will make changes like they did against Leeds. They still looked really good and beat Leeds 3-0. We have to try to do well in that game and get a result and progress if we can but we also have to be mindful that we’ve got another tough league game coming up away from home again a few days later. We’ll pick a team we think is the right one.