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BORO'S search for a new keeper has become more urgent following Connor Ripley's England call-up.

With Jason Steele expected to be named in Stuart Pearce’s Team GB Olympic squad, Tony Mowbray will be down to just one senior goalie for most of pre-season.

The first team squad begin their preparations for next season on July 5, five weeks before the opening game against Bury at Gigg Lane.

Ripley will be one of the players absent from the Rockliffe Park reunion because England are taking part in the Under-19 European Championships, staged in Estonia from July 3-15.

If England go all the way in the competition, Ripley won’t be available to Boro until Monday, July 16, at the earliest.

That’s the same week that Team GB will be preparing for the their Olympic warm-up fixture against Brazil at the Riverside on July 20.

Steele is looking odds on to be part of Pearce’s 18-man squad for the Olympic tournament, which starts on July 26 and finishes with the final on August 11, the same day as Boro’s Capital One Cup tie at Bury.

It’s inconceivable that Mowbray will want to go through pre-season with just one senior keeper at his disposal, so he’ll be trying hard to recruit a replacement for Danny Coyne in the two weeks before pre-season training starts.

Boro do have some talented goalies in their Academy, including 18-year-old James Montgomery and Luke Coddington, aged 17.

But Mowbray will be reluctant to expose them too soon and is hoping to sign a new keeper as soon as possible.

Boro’s first scheduled pre-season fixture is at Falkirk on July 22 followed by a week-long tour then games at Hartlepool, Carlisle, York and Scunthorpe.

England Under-19s will play their first European Championship Group B game in Tallinn on Tuesday, July 3, when they take on Croatia.

Serbia provide the opposition for the next game in Rakvere, on Friday, July 6.

England’s final opponents in their group are France and the game takes place back in Tallinn on Monday, July 9.

Ripley has been a regular member of Noel Blake’s squad though didn’t get any game time in the qualifying games played in England last month.