JOSEPH JOB is far too important to Boro`s plans to be allowed to leave the club during the forthcoming transfer window, manager Steve McClaren insisted today.

The Cameroon international striker has been quoted saying he may have to quit the Riverside in search of first team football.

But McClaren said: "There`s no chance of Joseph leaving this football club in January. He`s too vital for that.

Asked if Job was happy about that situation McClaren answered: "He will have to be. He`s not going and that`s the end of it."

Job, 27, who scored Boro`s first goal and then won the penalty for the second in last February`s Carling Cup final, signed a new contract with the club in the summer.

Popular with the fans, he made a goalscoring return to the first team for the midweek UEFA Cup win over Partizan Belgrade. But he could be back on the bench this afternoon, with first choice strikers Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Viduka set to return.

McClaren has consistently stressed that football is a squad game these days, despite suggestions in some quarters that he should play his strongest team at all times.

"It does make me laugh when I see and hear comments that I should play our best 11 every game," he said. "That would be great. I would have killed them by January then we would be without them for March, April and May. You just can`t do it."

Meanwhile, another Boro striker, former England U21 international Malcolm Christie could return to full training on Monday as he continues his rehabilitation after injury.

"He`s worked hard to get back, which is an achievement in itself after what he`s been through," said McClaren. "It`s been a worrying and tough time for him. But hopefully he`s coming through it. It would be great if we could get him fit, together with the likes of Ugo Ehiogu and Stuart Parnaby, in January."

Christie initially broke his leg in a training ground accident last season and his recovery suffered a setback when a stress fracture to the same leg was diagnosed.