HE might have made his 700th career appearance in Middlesbrough’s Carabao Cup win at Huddersfield on Tuesday, but Jonny Howson readily admits he was like a giddy teenager when Michael Carrick told him he would be in the squad for last weekend’s season-opener against Millwall.

Howson missed the vast majority of the pre-season programme because of injury, and was only able to resume training last week.

As a result, he was not sure whether he would be deemed fit enough to feature in the opening game of the season, but after being named on the bench, he came on for the final ten minutes as Boro were beaten at the Riverside.

Having made his senior debut for Leeds United in September 2006, this is Howson’s 18th season as a professional, but the sense of excitement remains as sharp as ever.

“I missed large parts of pre-season and obviously missed the back end of last season, and that’s very frustrating for me because I’ve been fortunate enough not to have too many injuries throughout my career,” said the Boro skipper. “But it’s part and parcel of football.

“Throughout my career, I believe I’ve looked after myself and that won’t be stopping now. So that gives me the best possible chance to get back as quickly as possible.

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“I’ll be honest, when the gaffer told me I’d be on the bench at the weekend, I did get that feeling like it was the first time again. When you’ve missed it so much, certainly missing out on those play-off games, that did really hurt. I’ve still got that buzz as big as ever, and I want to go on as long as possible.”

Howson missed both legs of Boro’s play-off semi-final defeat to Coventry, but the midfielder insists revenge will not be in his or his team-mates’ minds when they return to the CBS Arena to face the Sky Blues this weekend.

“I wouldn't say it’s revenge,” he said. “We want to win that game on Saturday like we do any other game of football. What happened last season has gone now and it’s something we can’t affect.

“They unfortunately just missed out (on promotion), but they’re a very good side and they’ve strengthened in the summer. It’s going to be a very tough game.

“Me personally, I’m not one of those people who looks at it as revenge. They have individuals and then as a collective unit as well, we want to get the better of them in order to beat them, but just the same way as any other team we come up against. We want to beat them, and they want to beat us, but it’s nothing personal.”