WHEN Jonathan Woodgate moved back to Middlesbrough from Madrid, the return to his hometown revived his career. If it turns out that he has played his last game as a professional footballer, then he would love nothing more than to have helped his beloved club back to the Premier League.

Regardless of whether or not Woodgate faces Norwich City on Monday, he will certainly be playing his part. He will be in the hotel, on the team coach, inside the dressing room and on the bench; just as he has more often than not this season.

Brought up in Nunthorpe a boyhood Boro fan admiring Gary Pallister and Tony Mowbray, Middlesbrough means everything to the 35-year-old who is, by his own admission, coming to the end of his career.

But Woodgate will never forget the way he recaptured his form and fitness during an initial spell from Real Madrid, even if he does regret taking the plunge and quitting Real Madrid full-time when he did towards the back end of the 2006-07 season-long loan to the Riverside.

“Coming to Middlesbrough on loan was the best decision I made,” said Woodgate. “My career was there (up high), injuries there (low) and where am I going to go? It went back up after playing here on loan.

“Now if I could be part of this squad that gets back to the Premier League, winning at Wembley, it would be one of the best, among the top three of my career. It would be a fantastic achievement for the town.”

Woodgate holds his debut as a teenager for Leeds United, moving to Real Madrid in a £9m switch from Newcastle in August 2004 and then heading the winner for Tottenham in the League Cup final against Chelsea in 2009 as his career highs. But said: “Promotion at Boro would be probably No 1.”

He added: “But I should have stayed at Real Madrid and fought it out. No disrespect to Boro, but coming from the highest level I should have grafted and stuck it out. I played well back at Boro so in the February of 2007 I signed permanently.

“Maybe I should have stuck it out and decided what to do at the end of the season. I had two years left. I didn't. I was in the bubble of the Boro. I should have stayed and proved a few people in the club (Real) wrong, played and done it. The ability was there, it was just the injuries.”

He is 35 and the injuries which have prevented him from breaking the 300-start barrier in league football remain a source of frustration for him. His main issues started in his final season at Newcastle, when his campaign ended prematurely shortly after playing outstandingly in a UEFA Cup semi-final with Marseille in 2004 when he was up against Didier Drogba. It was the summer when he moved to the Bernabeu.

“I remember my first day there, they were training at the stadium and the physio saw my leg and thought, ‘this needs a massage, for starters’,” said Woodgate. “I was walking into breakfast through some swinging doors and (Zinedine) Zidane was walking towards me with a croissant and a coffee.

“I think he just thought, ‘who’s this runner?’ He couldn’t have thought I was a player, he probably thought I was a competition winner. When I signed I did about three keepy-ups on the pitch and then put the ball under my arm – keepy-ups aren’t my forte.”

Due to injury he had to wait more than a year before he made his Real Madrid debut alongside David Beckham, scoring an own goal and picking up a red card against Athletic Bilbao. His restricted appearances became the story of his career.

“I was walking down the 99 steps at Whitby harbour one day and I got a call from my agent saying Madrid were going to bid tomorrow - I nearly fell down the steps,” he said. “The next day I flew to Germany to see Muller-Wohlfahrt. I couldn’t tell the Newcastle physio about Madrid.

“I then got a phone call saying Madrid were sending a plane to Germany for me and I went from Munich to Madrid. Muller-Wohlfahrt found that I had a fracture in my back which was causing the injuries and Madrid found that as well. It was touch and go whether I passed the medical. The doctor told Florentino Perez (the Real president) and he said to give me a four-year contract rather than five.”

He added: “I have been everywhere around the world and tried everything. It is hard. I've been all over. I've spent three months in Australia, I've spent three months in New York, I've been to Philadelphia, I've been to Leicester, I've been to Germany, I've been all over.

"There was one in Madrid where I was with the doctors with a great big tear in my thigh and they had ran out of ideas. One came in and got this pack of grass out. He started boiling it in a pan. He put it on my leg and started wrapping clingfilm round my leg.

“I thought ‘what's happening here?' Obviously it didn't work. But when you're in that state of mind you will try anything; anything to get you back fitter.”

Woodgate trains regularly at Middlesbrough so if he is called upon at Wembley then one of the finest English defenders of his generation could yet have one final showpiece appearance. What matters even more to him is seeing Premier League football return to the Riverside.

“I haven't got a clue if I will retire!” said Woodgate. “I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. I haven't really thought about it. I'll think about it lying somewhere hot on a sun lounger.

"But I would be happy sitting anywhere as long as Boro have won. I am a fan. If I am on the bench or in the stand on Monday I will be a nervous wreck. It means so much to me. It will feel fantastic. I might start crying. I am not that emotional but I might take it to the limit!”