Doncaster Rovers' Jamie Sterry: 'I'm the fittest and mentally strongest I've ever been'

The news that Owen Bailey had signed a new contract was, naturally, met with universal delight by the Doncaster Rovers fanbase.

But there's one person for whom it perhaps pleased more than most. Jamie Sterry is not only a long-standing colleague of Bailey's but the two are mightily close off-the-pitch. They go back a long way, from both progressing through the famed Newcastle United academy before reuniting later in their careers in DN4.

When asked by the Free Press about Bailey's signing of a new, three-year deal, Sterry was visibly beaming. "I'm over the moon," said the 30-year-old. "Because he's probably the best person I've met in football and he's one of my best mates.

"He deserves it. And for me, he's shown how committed he has been over these past few years and has been rewarded for it.

"He's shown how much he does love it here at Doncaster. He had an unbelievable year last year, and he's chose to be here and stay here, be the captain and go again. He knows what we want to achieve. He's at the front of it. And I'm obviously just proud of him. "I've said before I felt like his big brother but I feel a bit like a proud dad as well!"

Sterry is one of the elder and more experienced members of Grant McCann's new-look squad, going into the 2026-27 campaign, and after going through some tough times owing to injuries in recent years, he wants to carry on playing as long as possible. Last term saw him pick up a couple of unfortunate contact injuries, the first a sickening facial injury sustained on the first day of the season.

"I want to have the longest career I possibly can at the highest level I can play at," he added. "I think I'm now the best I've ever been and I'm 30 now, but I just wish I had this (psychological) work I've done on my mind when I was 20. But things happen for a reason, and learning at 30, why not? It's better than learning at 40!

"I've done a lot of work on myself in the off-season and I think back to when I first came to Doncaster, I was never physically where I should have been as a player. So Dave (Rennie, head of medical) has been amazing to get me to those next levels and when I'm at those levels, I can perform really well.

"The injuries I've had here have been my face, then my collarbone, which aren't really football injuries. My first injury was in my first game for Doncaster and it was ligaments in my toe, which Dave - and I know he wasn't here at the time - says he's never seen that in a footballer! So it's been injuries where I couldn't really do much about them. But, as I say, I've grown as a person massively over the situations what happened (injuries). And I still believe I finished the season strong as an individual last year.

"Like I said, I'm the fittest I've ever been and mentally strongest I've ever been. So I'm looking forward to the new season."