FORMER Robocop Ray Mallon worked for five weeks without realising he had a broken leg.

For the past six weeks, the Mayor of Middlesbrough has been limping badly after he injured a tendon while on a training run and fell a week later.

He soldiered on, thinking the pain in his leg was simply the tendon problem.

This week, it emerged that, with the aid of crutches, he had been hobbling around the corridors of Middlesbrough Town Hall with a broken leg.

An X-ray at the University Hospital of Hartlepool this week revealed he had broken his leg.

Mr Mallon, who became Middlesbrough's first elected Mayor in May 2002, underwent an operation yesterday when the broken bone was pinned together.

Mr Mallon, who made his name as head of Middlesbrough CID, was yesterday recovering in hospital after the operation.

Some of his planned meetings and engagements have been cancelled, but he is predicting a speedy return to work.

Jan Richmond, the chief executive of Middlesbrough Council, said: "It is typical of Ray to have kept working for the past five weeks despite the fact he has had a broken thigh."