Woodgate gets England recall

Jonathan Woodgate was among Steve McClaren's list of players for the England friendly against Spain at Old Trafford next Wednesday. His last call-up was in a friendly against Sweden back in March 2004.

Woodgate said: "I never stopped believing I would win a recall. I kept the belief that I would get picked again if I got a run of games.I know there was talk of me getting selected before Christmas but I wasn't ready for it then. I am now. I am playing two and three games a week without any problems and my fitness is getting better all the time. I do not feel I am playing better then I have done in the past when I was at Leeds, Newcastle and Real Madrid, but it is all about getting a run of games together, and it has been great to do that with my home-town club. I am looking forward to it."

Woody's had a tough time of it over the past few years, but his loan spell at Middlesbrough this season seems to have given him his confidence as well as his fitness back and he's been in impressive form. For a player on whom so much money was spent, it would be a fitting end of the nightmare for both him and Real Madrid if he were to make a triumphal return next season. The question now is whether he will want to make a success of it (he's won the players and some of the fans over with his quick grasp of Spanish) and whether he will feature in Capello's plans (assuming the Italian's still in charge then, of course).