IT has been a season that most people would probably like to forget. Soulless matches played in spectator-less stadiums. The footballing show has remained on the road, but it has unquestionably provided a diminished experience with the rest of the world understandably focused on battling against coronavirus.

Every so often, though, a ray of light has emerged from the gloom. Once in a while, football has served up a moment that provides welcome evidence of the enduring power and positivity of the beautiful game. For Middlesbrough, that moment came in a 2-1 win over Swansea City back in December.

On the face of it, Duncan Watmore’s two goals at the Riverside were nothing too sensational. ‘Forward scores first goals for new club’ is hardly a revelatory headline. With Watmore, however, the back story is what makes the tales of the present so remarkable. When the 27-year-old peeled away with his arms in the air after scoring his 26th-minute opener against the Swans, he wasn’t just celebrating his first goal in a Boro shirt. He was marking the end of a five-year struggle that had plunged him into physical and emotion hell.

“If I’m being brutally honest, everybody has doubts,” said Watmore, whose bright, cheery demeanour has endured throughout his struggles. “I’m happy to admit that, my ego won’t get in the way. I’m happy to admit that I did doubt myself. When you go through the injuries I’ve been through, and then you come back and you’re not at your best, you doubt whether you’ll ever be able to get there again.

“That was there in my mind, but then on the other side of things, I also had a belief in me that I could be successful again. I always think that if you keep doing things right, make the right decisions, treat people right around the place and do the hard work, eventually it’ll pay off. I’ve been doing that for a few years, and while I’ve had a bit of bad luck with a few injuries, I’ve been so grateful for this season. I feel very lucky.”

A ‘bit of bad luck’ hardly scrapes the surface of what Watmore has been through in the last few years. In December 2016, he shattered his cruciate ligaments while playing for Sunderland against Leicester. He returned to action the following September, but after six brief appearances, he ruptured his cruciates again in a match against Millwall. That meant another year on the sidelines, and when he did eventually return for another season-and-a-half with Sunderland, he found his body was not ready for the demands that were being placed on it.

Watmore’s knees have been injury-free since December 2018, but having barely kicked a ball for two years, it is hardly surprising that once he started playing again, other parts of his body began to break down.

For the final 18 months of his Sunderland career, it felt as though one niggling injury was following another. Two months out here, six weeks out there. Battling back from the cruciate operations was hellish; worrying that a full recovery might never materialise was even worse.

“The first one was 12 months of working so hard in the gym, so to then do my knee again…I went in at half-time and the physio just said, ‘Your ligament has gone again’,” he said. “That’s when you start thinking, ‘I don't think I'm going to play football again’. You work so hard then it goes that quickly, you just think, ‘How can I ever get this back if I've done 12 months, had the best surgeons, done the rehab and it goes again?’

“That was a really low point, but then you crack on with it and think, ‘Let's do another 12 months and work even harder and do the right things’. But then the hardest bit was coming back after that. I’d done all the building up, then I did my ankle ligaments with a really bad tackle, was out for four months. I came back for pre-season thinking this was the season I'll kick on, then I had a bad strain in my thigh and was out for two months.

“So, I came back thinking, ‘This is every part of my body’. That’s when I started doubting myself and struggling. That’s where having family and friends is so important. My fiancé, Sophie, parents, brothers, close friends, the people at Sunderland were so good with me. That’s when you need to have a good support network and just keep going.”

By this time last year, when the world was in lockdown, Watmore’s confidence in his body had at least been restored. Things had not really gone to plan on the pitch with Sunderland, with the forward finding his opportunities limited as Phil Parkinson’s side missed out on a play-off place as the season was controversially curtailed, but at least he knew he was finally injury-free. His release from Sunderland was hardly unexpected – “by the end, I think we all felt it was the best thing for everyone” – so when football resumed this autumn, Watmore waited for the phone to ring.

“The first couple of months were fine,” he said. “I was happy to be patient. There were teams from countries pretty much all over the world getting in touch with me. I was going to one place one week and then another the next, but things never quite materialised or came to fruition. I was happy to go wherever really because I just wanted to play. As long as it was the right footballing option, I was prepared to go anywhere.

“Nothing quite came together that was right, and I started to get a bit frustrated because it was October by this point and the season had started and I wanted to be playing. It was then I got a call asking if I wanted to come over and have a week’s training at Rockliffe.”

That call would transform Watmore’s career and pave the way for the highlight of Middlesbrough’s season. Things didn’t fall into place immediately, indeed Neil Warnock has admitted the initial advice from his assistant, Kevin Blackwell, was that Watmore did not have a lot to offer. That was ring-rust, though. After a couple of weeks on the training ground, it was clear the ability that once saw Watmore star in an England Under-21 side led by Gareth Southgate endures. Not, however, that the process of signing up was simple.

“I had to be a bit patient, but after four weeks of training or so, I was able to sign,” said Watmore. “To be honest, that helped in a way. I hadn’t trained with anyone for so long, those four weeks just gave me a bit of time to get back into it.

“There was a lot of trust there, but I really wanted to play for the manager and it paid off. I was very grateful for that – he gave me a chance when a lot of other people probably didn’t quite trust my body could be there. I knew it could.”

Watmore’s performances in the second half of the season enabled him to put his injury concerns well and truly behind him. His initial short-term deal was turned into a longer contract, and he will head into next season as one of Middlesbrough’s most important players.

“It’s definitely been a journey where I’ve learned so many things,” he said. “Football has given me so much on the pitch, but it’s also given me a lot off the pitch too in terms of dealing with things that are thrown at you in life and trying to build up that mental strength. I do feel a lot stronger.

"There were really dark and low times, there were, and I’d probably never experienced that before. But it made me deal with it, and I feel stronger for it.”