Holidays, a new kit and an upset son ... Rotherham United legend Richard Wood on swapping playing for coaching

He trooped gingerly from the pitch at half-time and resigned himself to the fact that he would never cross the whitewash as a player again.

At the age of 39, the Rotherham United old boy’s career was at an end.

After 667 appearances stretched across 23 seasons and seven clubs, the centre-half was surprisingly positive about his plight.

“I was fine; I think I was, anyway,” he says. “I just knew. I’d tried my best to be fit. I’d played five games in a row and in the third, fourth and fifth games I was in agony and that’s why I had to come off.”

Wood had spent the last two years with Doncaster Rovers following a near-decade-long, warrior-esque, triple-promotion spell at the Millers coalface during which he achieved legendary status.

His ambition had been to play into his 40s but Saturday April 25 2025, at home to AFC Wimbledon, saw him fall just over two months short of that aim as a long-standing ankle injury finally became too much to bear.

Someone else in the Wood household was far more bothered than he was.

“I wasn’t down about it, but my son, Graye, was because he wasn’t at the game,” says the man who is now rekindling his love affair with Rotherham by taking his first steps as a coach.

“He’d been on a school trip and got a bit upset when he got back. I said: ‘Look, Mate, you’re fine; look back at my career not at that one match. I’m glad you didn’t come because I wouldn’t have wanted you to see me like that.’

“My other son, Jenson, and my missus, Jade, were there. I played all right but they knew how much pain I was in. They could see it. Not many other people could because I tried to hide it as best I could.”

We’re chatting just before the June 26 start of pre-season training. The players are due back at Roundwood the following day but Wood has already been in several times as he prepares for his new life as part of manager Matt Hamshaw’s backroom team alongside experienced coaches Dale Tonge and Andy Warrington.

The summer has seen him take a few well-earned holidays and now he’s ready to get down to the task of transferring the qualities that made him such an inspiring skipper to his new role.

“I’ve just got back from Majorca,” he says. “Just couples. Me and my mate are turning 40. He wanted to go away with his missus and Jade. Then I invited a few other couples. There were ten of us. We had a great weekend. Messy!”

No longer will he be donning playing colours. Now he’s in kit reserved for staff only.

“I’m really looking forward to the job,” he says. “It’s going to be nice to be around the lads and introduce myself. I know a few faces anyway. I’ll just be doing it in a black T-shirt instead of a red one. I’ve been doing a bit of running to stay in shape.

“It’s a different thought process and a different way of speaking to the lads, I suppose. But my approach will be similar to how I played over the last five to ten years as a captain. I was sort of coaching on the pitch anyway. I’m hoping to just be myself and keep doing what I was doing.

“The difference, obviously, is that I won’t be joining in, I'll be shouting to the lads from the side, pushing them to work hard and encouraging them and trying to give them confidence.”

Wood will be more than a coach and his influence will extend into every corner of Roundwood and AESSEAL New York Stadium. A leader then, a leader now; an example then, an example now. It feels reassuring to have him wearing the badge again.

He made a rare appearance on social media to announce he was hanging up his boots and was humbled by the response from Millers circles.

“I’m not a massive poster on X but I wanted to say ‘thank you’,” he says. “It was lovely to read the replies. My family couldn’t believe all the comments I was getting.”

Ah, his family ... always his biggest supporters of all and regular spectators as his amazing Rotherham adventure unfolded over nine seasons: all those promotions, two Wembley wins, that two-goal blast at the national stadium and a last hurrah of Championship survival.

His new challenge excites rather than daunts him. “I’m sure I'll find my way,” he says. “I want to learn every day. I’ll be learning off Tongey and the gaffer and they’re great people to learn from.

“The gaffer has got loads of experience. He was with Paul Warne from the beginning and had been coaching in the youth set-up before that.

“He went to Derby County and saw what happens at a big club. He'll have learned loads from Warney about management. He seems really assured and confident, he’s in a good place.

“Then Tongey’s got a great track record, hasn't he? He’s the same age as me but he’s been coaching for a long time. He seems a really good guy.”

Already, Wood has acquired his UEFA B Licence and will spend the next year working towards his A qualification. He's been through a three-day residential programme at St George's Park and has another one to complete next May, before which assessors will pay six visits to Roundwood and he will make the same number of trips to them.

“St George’s was good,” he says. “It was a course for senior pros and I enjoyed it. I met a lot of new people. It’s all about getting contacts and making links.”

“Any big names?” I ask. “James Coppinger,” he grins. “He’s a big name. To me anyway. He’s played even more games than I have!”

Wood and Hamshaw go back a long way. They were teammates at Sheffield Wednesday in the early noughties and were then captain and coach respectively during the Warne years at AESSEAL New York Stadium.

“We’ve always had a good relationship,” he says. “I was always the link between the players and the coaching staff. As first-team coach, he sort of did it the other way - he was the link between management and the players.

“We get on well. I’ve known him for years. I know what he’s all about and he knows what I’m all about so we trust each other. That’s a big thing."

The younger man's respect is obvious. It’s no longer ‘Hammy’ between the pair but ‘Gaffer’.

As word seeped through football about the retirement, the phone started to ring.

“I was quite surprised actually,” Wood says. “You think you’re going to be out of the game but then the calls come in. It was nice to have people speaking to me about what I was doing and asking if I fancied working with them.”

The name he most wanted to flash up on his phone was ‘Hamshaw’ and the Rotherham boss duly made his move towards the end of last season soon after taking the hot-seat. An agreement was in place well before the May 20 official confirmation.

“It happened quickly,” Wood says. “It’s all fallen into place. Timing wise, it couldn’t have worked out any better. I think that me coming back was meant to be, it just feels right.”

Everything is now geared towards playing his part in helping to prepare the squad for League One opening day.

“Not leading out the team and walking to the dugout after the players are on the pitch will be strange,” he says. “But it might even be a nice feeling.

“The gaffer and Tongey have told me how good it is to win as a manager or a coach. They say it’s even better than when you’re playing.”

Meanwhile, among the Wood clan Dad’s change in role has thrown up one minor conundrum.

“The boys will be getting their Rotherham shirts,” he says. “I don’t know what they are doing about having names and numbers on the back. They can get ‘Wood’, I suppose, but I don’t think they can have ‘6’ anymore.”

August 2, New York, the Millers v Port Vale.

Along with his brother and mum, Graye will be there.