STEVE GIBSON will hold crisis talks with Aitor Karanka in the next 24 hours after Middlesbrough’s promotion push suffered a series of blows on a crisis-hit weekend.

Having stormed out of a team meeting at Rockliffe Park on Friday, Karanka was prevented from re-entering Boro’s training base on Saturday morning and was not involved in yesterday’s game at Charlton.

However, with the Teessiders having produced one of their worst displays of the season as they suffered a 2-0 defeat under the caretaker control of Steve Agnew, Gibson will hold face-to-face talks with Karanka to discuss what happens next.

The Boro owner was the driving force behind the decision to take Karanka out of the firing line after Friday’s remarkable turn of events, but yesterday’s performance means it is impossible to rule out the former Real Madrid assistant returning to take charge of the final ten games of the season.

Karanka still retains the support of a large number of Middlesbrough fans – his name was chanted on a number of occasions during yesterday’s game – and while he has suffered a breakdown in relations with a number of senior players, Gibson could decide that his return is the best way to steady the ship.

Retaining Agnew in a caretaker role until the end of the season is another option, although yesterday’s game was hardly a successful audition for the former number two. The presence of Karanka’s backroom staff is another factor that could make it difficult for Agnew to exert any meaningful authority in the remaining seven weeks of the campaign.

The likes of Nigel Pearson and David Moyes are available if Gibson opts to look beyond his current staff in an attempt to spark a positive reaction, but with promotion rivals Hull City due to visit the Riverside on Friday, time is hardly on the Teessiders’ side if they are to enact a radical change of head coach.

Karanka’s failure to take the team at Charlton is unprecedented, but his explosive decision to turn his back on his team was not exactly unexpected given the way in which he has struggled to handle the mounting pressure of the promotion battle in recent weeks.

There have been signs of increased tension as Boro’s results have nosedived in the last two months, with Karanka picking individual battles with a number of his players, questioning his squad’s collective desire and even turning on the club’s fans in the wake of a 2-1 defeat at Blackburn.

He has clashed with a succession of players this season – most notably Albert Adomah, Stewart Downing and Jonathan Woodgate – and is known to have championed a January move for Ross McCormack rather than Jordan Rhodes, who arrived in a £9m switch from Blackburn Rovers.

He was disillusioned with his players’ performance in last week’s 1-0 defeat at Rotherham, and things came to a head on Friday, when a meeting descended into a heated argument that ended with Karanka leaving Rockliffe Park and reportedly telling his players, ‘I won’t be managing you anymore’.

Gibson was immediately informed of Karanka’s actions, and opted to place Agnew in caretaker charge of yesterday’s game. Karanka attempted to enter the training ground on Saturday morning in an attempt to explain his actions and smooth over the damage, but was turned away and asked not to jeopardise preparations for yesterday’s game.

In the end, Boro capitulated without him, conceding two second-half goals and barely threatening to test Charlton goalkeeper Nick Pope, whose main involvement was to deny a potential first-half own goal from Rod Fanni.

Agnew refused to answer questions about Karanka’s absence or his own position in the wake of the game, but he denied that a run of three wins from the last 11 games has left Boro’s promotion hopes in tatters. The Teessiders now trail league leaders Burnley by seven points, and have played a game more than third-placed Hull, who are just two points behind them.

“I don’t think there’s any danger of us throwing this away,” said Agnew, who is expected to continue to take charge of training while the situation with Karanka is resolved. “The Championship is relentless in terms of the number of games, how quick they come and the way the results change.

“Believe you me, I’ve been here before. There’ll be lots of changes and lots of results that nobody expects from now to the end of the season. As I’ve said to the players, they have to stick together. They’ll go through ups and downs, but at the end of it all, we’ll have enough to achieve what we all want to achieve.”

Agnew denied that the disrupted preparation had been a factor in the defeat, but admitted his side had badly underperformed against a Charlton team who remain just one position above the foot of the table.

“The preparation was fine – that’s certainly no excuse for the performance,” he said. “I think we’ve got to move forward. We’ve got to look towards the run in now and the final ten games.

“We’re disappointed with the performance and the result. We conceded two poor goals, and that’s not like us. We have to move on very, very quickly. To lose games against teams that are battling for their lives at the bottom of the league is something that we’ve got to deal with.”