'Could have gone very bad' - Doncaster Rovers man on his injury nightmare + contract situation

The skipper played the first two league games of the campaign before suffering an ankle knock. Little did Wood know that the injury would keep him on the sidelines for six months and require three operations to get to the bottom of.

He made his playing return at Accrington last month and started his first match since August in Rovers' last outing at Crewe, prior to the international break. Speaking about his struggles, he told BBC Sheffield that he is thankful that the problem was tackled when it was.

"I'm a lot happier because it feels as if I've been in the wilderness for six months which wasn't nice," he said. "I'm 40 in July but it's still hard when you're injured. I have struggled with it and had complications.

"But I'm fit now and have trained every day for the last four weeks or so, so I'm happy. My ankle got infected, deep in the joint. If we'd have not caught it or sorted it when we did I'd have had to have my ankle fused together which would have meant I wouldn't have been able to walk properly again. So it could have gone very bad.

"But I feel like a new person again and have a new lease of life."

Wood is one of many players whose Rovers contracts expire in the next few months but he remains relaxed over what comes next.

"I'm quite open at the moment," he added. "I want to carry on, if my body permits me to carry on. But I'll just see how I am over the next few months. I want to play as many games as I can.

"Hopefully I can impress the manager and stay in the team. We'll see what happens at the end of the season and go from there. I'm just disappointed because I had an injury last year so I didn't play as many games as I wanted to. Same again this year: nowhere near. Now I'm back I want to do everything I can to help us get promoted. It's all to play for."

Rovers host Carlisle on Saturday in their first outing for a fortnight.