Jonathan Woodgate on Real Madrid "failure" despite gruelling 1,000 sit-ups-a-day regime

Jonathan Woodgate has revealed he considers his time at Real Madrid a "failure" after incessant injuries ravaged his stint in Spain - despite the club's best and most bizarre efforts to keep him fit.

Having broken through with Leeds at the age of 18, Woodgate showed signs of early promise and was subsequently snapped up by Newcastle in the summer of 2003. The former England centre-back then caused quite the stir when he joined La Liga giants Real Madrid one year later in a shock £13.4million move from the Magpies.

Despite the defender's undoubted quality, question marks remained over the then 24-year-old's fitness levels as countless injury concerns had hampered his early career. Those fears continued to come to fruition following his move to the Spanish capital as a string of setbacks saw Woodgate endure a torrid time with Los Blancos.

"Failure is the one word I’d use about Madrid," Woodgate admitted while speaking on the Original Penguin X Campaign Against Living Miserably Under The Surface podcast. "When you sign for the biggest team in the world, you want to go there and make a difference, but I didn’t.

"I didn’t win any trophies there and I hardly played, so that’s why I’d put it down as a failure. When I look back on my career, that gets to me. More than anything. Because you’re on the biggest stage. And my body let me down."

Recurring back trouble resulted in injuries to other key areas - "it was making me pull my hamstrings, my quads, groin injuries," the centre-back confessed - as Woodgate was limited to a mere 14 appearances across his two seasons at the Santiago Bernabeu. During that time, Real Madrid attempted all manner of methods to help the defender get his body back into working order, including