Duncan Watmore: ‘My injuries gave me a better outlook on life. I don’t have any regrets’

Duncan Watmore is wondering what felt more sudden: the overnight rise that took him from non-League football and a university degree to heights he dared not imagine or the pain that shot through his left knee and almost forced him into early retirement. “The rise is something you just go along with. You’re young, fearless, and I loved it,” he says. “But life always teaches you lessons and mine was that I couldn’t take it for granted. That’s what the fall did. It gave me a different sense of perspective.”

Watmore is back now, somewhere close to his best and leading the line for Middlesbrough in the Championship, but the third act of his career is more occupational than all-encompassing. It’s not to suggest his love for the sport has dimmed but that, during the “dark times” and those long months of convalescence when he was left contemplating his identity, he began to feel the weight of that void. There was a sense of wider purpose that was missing; a yearning for meaning and motivation that would carry on long after his career came to a more natural end.

“I feel quite blessed that I don’t see myself as a footballer now,” he says. “I play football and I will always give 100 per cent. I still love that feeling of scoring a goal or helping the team, that emotional attachment never goes away. But I’ve become more aware of the impact I can have. There’s more to life and there are issues around the world that we can use football to help try and change.”

In 2017, Watmore became one of the first English footballers to join Common Goal and donates 1 per cent of his salary to the organisation alongside his charity work. There are now over 300 members and the hope is that their collective strength can harness football’s vast power and reach. “Football is so much more than just a game,” Watmore says. “It’s watched by billions and we’ve seen during the pandemic the impact it can have as an industry if we put social purpose at its core. I hope more and more players take someone like Marcus Rashford’s example to use their profile for good and, from my experience, most lads are interested in doing that. I’ve noticed that change in the dressing room. Players are much more aware of the world around them.”

Watmore’s main area of focus with Common Goal has been education, owing largely to his own unusual route into the game. In the past he has referred to himself as an “accidental footballer”, and even if there is little fluke to a career that has spanned over 200 appearances and demanded such deep resolve to overcome successive ACL injures, there is an element of truth to that.

Watmore had all but given up on his dreams of playing professional football after being released by Manchester United’s academy. He was a 19-year-old at university, studying for a degree in economics and business management and playing part-time at Altrincham when Sunderland plucked him from anonymity in 2013. During the two years he was out injured, after his ACL popped again just six games into his first comeback attempt, Watmore belatedly finished his degree with first-class honours. And after being put on furlough by Sunderland in 2020 as his seven-year spell at the club drifted towards its end, he began a Masters in International Business Leadership and Management at the University of York, eventually writing his dissertation on Common Goal, for which he was awarded a distinction. “Education is something that means a lot to me,” he says, referencing projects in Haiti and South Africa. “But players all have their own causes. What Common Goal does is bring them together and get everyone united in a team effort and I’m very proud to be part of that.”

There was a period when Watmore feared he might have to lean on his degree out of necessity rather than choice. Despite still being only 26, there were few offers to sign him as a free agent in the summer and tepid interest never turned concrete. Time blurred, frustration brewed and it wasn’t until November that Middlesbrough offered him the chance to prove his fitness. One week became four until, finally, Watmore was offered the short stick of a two-month deal. But after scoring five goals in six games the following month, that contract was extended until the summer of 2023. “I feel more comfortable now,” he says, having now made 59 appearances for the club. “I’m not too old but I know, with the injuries I’ve had, I won’t have loads of years left and so with that comes a realisation of being grateful for what you have. I’ve tried to let the fear of what could happen go because it doesn’t help anything. My mindset is just to enjoy it because everything from hereon is a bonus.”

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There was a neat symmetry to that sense of closure last month when Middlesbrough knocked Manchester United out of the FA Cup. Growing up, Watmore had a season ticket in the Stretford End at Old Trafford and would watch Cristiano Ronaldo, and the short distance to the pitch felt like a bridge to another world far out of reach. “And then I scored a penalty [in the shootout] to knock him out,” he says, before bursting into laughter. “I see it as one of the highlights of my career. If you’d said three or four years ago, when I was injured and didn’t think I’d play again, that I’d have moments like these again on a football pitch, I wouldn’t necessarily have believed you.

“People always ask me if look back sadly or have regrets because of how the injuries happened, but football has given me so much more than I ever thought it would. It’s been a bit of a unique path but I wouldn’t change anything about it, even the injuries, because it’s given me a much better outlook on life in general. I feel very grateful to have come through stronger on the other side and I’m in a place now where I’m at peace with the game. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

To learn more about how Common Goal is trying to inspire everyone in football to collaborate towards an equal and sustainable future for all, click here.