'Forever grateful' - Sheffield Wednesday promotion hero calls time on 'fairytale' career
Former Sheffield Wednesday captain, and 2005 promotion-winner, Richard Wood, has decided to hang up his boots.
Wood, who will turn 40 in a few months’ time, recently won the fifth promotion of his career as he helped Doncaster Rovers to the League Two title last week, and he’s made the choice to make this season his last out on the field after making over 660 career appearances.
The centre back, who played almost 200 times for Wednesday after coming through their academy ranks, featured just eight times in Rovers’ title-winning campaign this time around, and he says that the time has come to pass on the baton.
“You must listen to your body and say stop at the right time,” he said in a lengthy statement released by the club. “It has not been without long and careful consideration that I have come to this conclusion, and, truth be told, I had never really contemplated the reality of hanging up the old magic hat until now. I think that tells its own story.
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“I like to think that I have been honest throughout my career. Honest about my limitations as a player and with every teammate and coach I have encountered along the way. As much as it breaks my heart, I have had to take that same approach with this decision. Defying the odds and pushing these old bones through pre-season after pre-season is a challenge which I have relished but deep down I know it’s time to leave that to the next generation – yes, and the one below that, very funny!
“I want to thank everyone who has made my journey so incredibly special over the last 23 years... It has been a fairytale. I’m lost for the words to explain how privileged I feel to have enjoyed the career that I have. 667 appearances for eight different clubs – no wonder I’m creaking! – and five promotions is a CV I could never have dreamed of writing as a fresh-faced 17yr old making my debut for Sheffield Wednesday back in 2003.
Undoubtedly though, the people that have influenced the story is what has decorated each chapter of heading and kicking it with colour that I could never have added alone.
Richard Wood retires from football
“From Kevin Stead – my first ever manager in grassroots football – to Grant McCann at Doncaster Rovers, I want to say an enormous thank you. Luckily, Kevin didn’t have an office door I could knock on to ask why I wasn’t playing, but pretty much everyone thereafter has, and they’ve all shown me huge respect and patience every time I’ve asked the question. Huge thanks must therefore go to Paul Warne, who endured over six years of those conversations and moans at Rotherham, all whilst he and his coaching staff brought the very best out of me in what could otherwise have been my twilight years from 32 onwards.
“I have been lucky enough to be a part of some unreal dressing rooms and even more privileged to have been the captain in a number of them. My phone contacts book has former teammates on it that are now friends for life and, again, without those people in the trenches alongside me, the lows would have been tough to bear, the highs nowhere near as enjoyable, and, well, the nights out a bit tamer! To all my old teammates, sincerely, thank you.
“Make no mistake, I am writing this to thank each and every supporter for every ounce of applause they have given me. Even the ones who have written me off, and I genuinely mean that. I’m not stupid, I get it – I’d have tried to replace me too! Again, ‘old school’ centre halves with limited ability very rarely get a song and mine has been literal music to my soul every time it’s been chanted. You have no idea what your backing has meant to me and it makes me emotional to play the memories back in my mind as I type.
“However, none of the stitches, the acupuncture, the operations, the ice baths or whatever was required to put me back together would have been worth anything without one person, in particular. My partner, Jade. She has been the one constant throughout my career. I’m not saying the rest of my family didn’t believe, they did, but Jade has lived every minute of it. The good and the bad – and I can be horrible to live with sometimes. She gave me my two amazing boys, Jenson and Graye, who are the lights of our lives. My career has been for them and every single time I have crossed that white line, it has been with the sole intention of making them proud of ‘Dad’. I hope I have done that. I love you all so much.
“It felt fitting to hang up my boots on the back of making one last memory with them, which came in the form of my first ever ‘championship’ winners medal at the end of the season with Doncaster. Old dogs can learn new tricks it turns out! Their big beaming smiles on that day and every time I’ve seen them before have made my career truly magical and I will be forever grateful.
“I’ve headed my last brick, but this game has given me everything and I will always love it. I can’t wait to tackle whatever challenge is next as hard as some of the opposition strikers I faced. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all.”