MIDDLESBROUGH stalwart Colin Cooper is hoping to persuade manager Steve McClaren to hand him a new one-year deal, writes Clive Hetherington.

Football has provided a focus for Cooper to help him cope with the tragic loss of two-year-old son Finlay, who died in January just hours after Boro's FA Cup fourth-round victory over Manchester United.

Defender Cooper has started six of high-riding Boro's ten games in all competitions this season, and admits: "I am enjoying my football.

"The club is buzzing, the team are playing well, and different people who have figured have not let anyone down.

"I'm 35, going on 36, and still playing in the Premier League. I think anyone in my situation would be happy with that and I'm just looking to be involved in as many games as I can this season and hopefully try to secure another year, if I can.''

Cooper, speaking to Boro's official website, added: "What I have learned to do, certainly over the last eight months, is just not put too much pressure on myself.

"As everybody knows, I have come to realise there's a heck of a lot more outside football.

"I still want to win as badly as I ever did, but at the end of a game on a Saturday, all I ever want to do is get back home to my family.''

Meanwhile, Juninho is returning to Brazil in a bid to beat the winter blues on Teesside while he continues his rehabilitation from the surgery he had nearly two months ago .

Read more about Middlesbrough here.