JONATHAN WOODGATE is desperate to help Middlesbrough clinch promotion back to the Premier League this season and thinks it would be his crowning glory if he could achieve his goal.

Woodgate could be set for a greater part during a week which could go shape the rest of Boro's season.

The 35-year-old is in contention to start a Championship game for only the second time since April, either at fourth-placed Derby County tonight or at leaders Bournemouth this Saturday.

After playing the majority of last weekend’s 4-1 win over Ipswich at the Riverside Stadium following Daniel Ayala’s withdrawal with a thigh problem, Woodgate is ready to answer Aitor Karanka’s call.

Woodgate has had to bide his time throughout the campaign but has impressed Karanka with his attitude so much that he was persuaded not to retire after the turn of the year.

Now, feeling fresh and fully fit, the former Real Madrid centre-back would love to be central to a promotion run in for the last nine matches before making a decision on his future after a top-flight return has been secured.

“If we can win the Championship, it will be the best achievement of my career especially because I am a hometown boy going up with the team I’ve supported since 1986,” said Woodgate, brought up in Nunthorpe. “There would not be a better feeling if that happened. I have felt excitement every year I have been here because I have always been confident, but we have let ourselves down twice.

“I will cross the bridge of retirement when we come to it. We have nine games remaining first and it’s about what the team does, what Middlesbrough Football Club does, it’s not about me.

“But I would love to get to the summer knowing promotion has been achieved first, of course I would. I am not going to get drawn in to saying what might happen at the end of the season until we have got to the end of the season first. Let’s see what happens.”

Woodgate is out of contract in the summer but Karanka has enjoyed working with him so much that there is a chance he could end up on his backroom team even if he opts to keep playing.

His performances and the number of matches he plays between now and May is likely to have a huge bearing on his decision, but he feels confident that he can keep Boro tight at the back should Karanka turn his way tonight.

“I am fine. There will not be a problem, I am fit,” said Woodgate. “I have trained, the fitness coaches are really good. I was injured a while so it has meant I can come back in and feel good about things.

“Maybe we do need a bit of experience at the back for the run-in, that’s not down to me though. I have played all of my football at the highest level so I have the experience. If I am asked to play I will.

“The players have done really well before I stepped in, though, so it’s nothing to do with me where they are in the league. I just try to add my experience to help everyone whether I am playing or I am not.

“It’s great to come into a team at this stage pushing at the top end of the Championship, pushing for something. We are doing really well. They are all going well. Coming on was quite nerve-racking to be honest because it has been a while.”

Ayala’s possible absence tonight means that Karanka could opt to just drop Woodgate straight in at the heart of the defence. Alternatively, Tomas Kalas could switch back to a more central role with Emilio Nsue filling in a right-back.

Whatever team is sent out at the iPro Stadium tonight will be tasked with building on the comprehensive victory at Ipswich, which dispelled suggestions that Boro were cracking under the pressure of being involved in the promotion run-in.

“I wouldn’t say we were nervy but we have entered the last ten games of the season and we want to go up,” said Woodgate. “There is going to be pressure when the situation is like that. Every game now is massive. We have to go to Derby on Tuesday and win that. We will take it game by game and I am confident.”

Middlesbrough (4-2-3-1): Konstantopoulos; Kalas, Woodgate, Gibson, Friend; Leadbitter, Clayton; Adomah, Vossen, Reach; Bamford.