Get the latest Boro stories straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter Enter your email Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Aitor Karanka has confirmed new signing Alex Baptiste is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering a broken leg at York City.

Karanka admitted the football became irrelevant after the former Bolton defender crumpled to the floor on 28 minutes following a 50/50 challenge with York trialist and former Boro youngster Danny Johnson.

Baptiste was rushed to hospital and now looks set for a long spell on the treatment table, and Karanka admitted he was devastated for the new signing.

"Today is the kind of day when I wouldn't want to speak about football because I'm very disappointed. After Alex got injured I left the game," Karanka said.

"I don't understand sometimes how unfair football is because Alex arrived one week ago, we were together in my office, and now he's in the hospital.

"If our defeat at Wembley was a motivation, now we have another motivation to do it for Alex.

"I'm sure it is a serious injury and it will take a long time. I think it's a complete break, so we need to wait and see."

Boro kicked off their pre-season campaign with a victory after Brad Fewster's strike 11 minutes from time.

But Karanka saw few reasons for celebration at Bootham Crescent, as Boro's right-back curse struck again.

"This is the worst way to start pre-season because the one thing you want out of these kind of games is to not get injured," Boro's boss adedd.

"We've started pre-season with a serious injury.

"The main thing is to add more training sessions and for me it was good because York is a good team, and it added another session."