WE'LL get to the football - the goals, many of them crucial and memorable, and his all-round contribution in the red of Middlesbrough - but first we'll start with Matt Crooks the bloke, for it's his personality off the pitch as much as his performances on it which made 'The Tree' such a popular figure on Teesside and why he'll be so sorely missed.

Crooks arrived at Boro with no prior association but Middlesbrough soon became far more to the midfielder and his family than just the club he played for, it became home. Crooks just got it.

If you've ever come across the 30-year-old in person you'll have been struck by his warmth, modesty and, above all, decency.

"It's nice to be nice, isn't it," he said in an interview with the Echo last year.

"That's all there is too it. I try to be a nice guy at training, try to be nice outside of training. That's just life isn't it, be nice and people will be nice to you."

That's why it was Crooks who took Martin Payero under his wing when the Argentine midfielder was struggling to settle on Teesside, It's why Crooks was always first to stick his hand up and volunteer when there was a community event that the club was involved in.

Crooks has never been overly comfortable with the idea of being a role model - "strange" is how he describes it.

"We're just normal people," he says.

But he's a normal bloke who's done extraordinary things.

Crooks has epilepsy. He wasn't diagnosed until he was 18, which must have been terrifying for a teenager chasing his dream of becoming a professional footballer, but he's never let it define him.

"I've always said it isn't who I am, it's just something I've got," he said in a recent interview with 5Live's Steve Crossman.

"My mum and dad are proud to be deaf and I feel the same way about epilepsy. It's a dangerous condition and can have serious consequences but it's part of me and who I am and I should embrace it rather than live in fear."

Crooks has thrown his weight behind epilepsy charities but is far more than an ambassador from afar. The organisers of one fundraiser were delighted when Crooks joined a Zoom call chat previewing the event from Boro's training ground. The forward has always got stuck into the causes he's passionate about.

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Nothing is closer to Crooks' heart than the Jordan Sinnott Foundation, set up in memory of his best friend after he was tragically killed on a night out in 2020.

Crooks has since helped to raise more than £100,000 and made sport more accessible for thousands of under-privileged youngsters.

"I want it to be as big as possible," said Crooks, who has seen the mammoth challenges Kevin Sinfield has taken on in support of his best friend Rob Burrow, who is battling Motor Neurone Disease, and intends to do similar in the name of Jordan once he's finished playing.

Jordan would have been 30 tomorrow.

"It is more difficult (at this time of year)," Crooks told the BBC.

"I've always done well football-wise in January. I don't know if that's a coincidence, if it's him looking out for me or just me working a bit harder."

In January last year, Crooks scored a crucial brace in the win at Birmingham and in early February 2022 came the goal at Manchester United, his greatest moment in a Boro shirt. Crooks is a boyhood United fan and played for them as a kid.

"It was a crazy day," he said, looking back.

Crooks leaves having scored 20 league goals in less than 80 starts. And he knew how to pick his moments, many of his goals were pivotal. He scored doubles in the home wins over Reading and Stoke in his first season and last season came the dramatic late winners against Norwich and Luton. This season, there was the equaliser against Bolton early on in the Carabao Cup run. Without it, who knows, Boro might have been dumped out that night and there would have been no home win over Chelsea that, no matter what happened in the second leg, will live long in the memory.

It's no secret that Neil Warnock and Boro's recruitment team weren't always on the same page. There were disagreements over targets and signings but the addition of Crooks has never been questioned.

"I think the fans will take to him," said Warnock when the deal was done in 2021. He wasn't wrong.

Reliable, dedicated, likeable, a real role model on and off the pitch. He'll be fondly remembered at Boro.