THROUGHOUT his year-long injury nightmare, Matt Clarke always tried to maintain a sense of perspective. As frustrated as he was, he tried to remain positive, to remind himself it was "one of those things" and to never lose sight of the fact a lot of people are a lot worse off.

He admits, however, that there was a stage when he started to feel "resentful". Football was all he'd known and it had been taken away from him. And with little sign of light at the end of the tunnel, as much as Clarke tried to focus on the process of rehab, his future was very much uncertain.

“I think you always trust that eventually things will turn, but when you’ve lived with a lot of pain, and you do all the work but the pain doesn’t go away, or you see the specialist but the pain doesn’t go away either, that’s a tricky and frustrating spot to be in," says Clarke, looking back on the most testing period of his career.

Clarke joined Boro in the summer of 2022 but after just six appearances was sidelined with something of a mystery back problem. More than a year passed between his sixth and seventh appearances for the club.

"Listen, there’s always someone worse off than you. It’s football, at the end of the day, and that’s the perspective you have to have," he says.

"I try to avoid getting into ‘dark places’ and all this sort of thing because, at the end of the day, there are some people out there that are really struggling. It’s frustrating not being able to play football, but in perspective, it’s just one of those things and you just have to keep working and trusting that, eventually, things will come better for you.

“Everyone deals with it differently. I suppose I became a bit bitter towards football. Football is the thing that I’ve always been able to do and loved, and what I see my purpose in life as, to a point. When you can’t do that, you become a little bit resentful, but you have to just focus on the work and what you can do."

For a while, Clarke could do very little. The initial plan was to explore conservative measures to try and ease the problem but after that approach failed, the defender needed to go under the knife.

“It was back surgery. We tried to do it as conservatively as possible, with injections and treatment and specialists, but for one reason or another, it didn’t work and we had to look for other methods," says the 27-year-old.

"You get to a point where you’re just desperate for things to get better. If you can’t do it conservatively, then you need to take the plunge. That was the case. Yes, you don’t do it lightly, because there’s always side-effects and things don’t always work out, but when you feel like you’ve tried everything, you’ve got no other options I suppose.

“It was probably after the surgery that things really turned. After the surgery, things have got better. Yes, there have been little setbacks along the way, but on the whole, a lot of the pain had gone from the moment I had the operation, and it felt like I was moving in the right direction. That hadn’t been the case at other times."

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Michael Carrick and Boro's medical and coaching team all agreed on the need for caution. They didn't want to rush Clarke back and risk a fresh setback. Instead, they took small steps. The defender returned to training before a return to action with the Under-21s. Next came a place on the first team bench. Then a late cameo against Preston. He's since made seven appearances in the last month, impressing and re-establishing himself as a key member in the Boro team.

“I feel really good," he says.

"I feel like I’m capable of doing whatever I need to do. Obviously, there’s always a bit of rustiness and you don’t really know what level you’re going to come back to, but you have to find that stuff along the way. I feel like I can do whatever I need to do, so it’s up to me to find my level and my form."

His level and his form has been good. Clarke was excellent in the Carabao Cup quarter-final win at Port Vale and now looks set to have a major role in the second half of the season - when he fancies Boro to kick-on.

“I definitely think this squad has what it takes," he says.

"It's been a bit frustrating with the injuries, but as soon as the team gets settled, I’m sure we’ll kick on. There’s definitely the quality there, and the set-up is there too, it’s just about us as players and as a group finding the levels on the pitch.

“Consistency is the key to any sort of success, really. You’re not going to be successful if you have one-off games or show it in moments, you’ve got to do it consistently. If you want to build momentum, and build results on the back of other results, then you’ve got to have that consistency.

 “There’s so many points to play for and games coming up, and the league is still so tight."