Rotherham United v Cardiff City: 'Roadrunner' Duncan Watmore can be the Millers' Wile E. Coyote

Two serious ACL injuries later, the free agent Rotherham United signed on deadline day might resemble more of a Wile E Coyote, someone more reliant on cunning and guile, but is no less hungry to succeed because of it.

At 31, with a number of bad injuries behind him, Watmore is learning to look after his body and adapt his game.

He has been out of football since being released by Millwall in the summer and had been hanging on for a club in the Championship to offer him a lifeline - Sheffield Wednesday had been linked - much as Middlesbrough did nearly six years ago.

As it is, Matt Hamshaw and Rotherham United were the ones to come to his rescue, and Watmore was more than happy to come into a club buoyed by recent events, even if they did drop back into League One’s relegation zone on Tuesday night.

“Sam did use to call me Roadrunner. That’s when I could do it for 90 minutes,” laughs Watmore, who made 87 appearances for Sunderland across seven years.

“Some players get lucky and they don’t get injured, but when you have serious injuries it does take its toll and so the way to stay in the game is to adapt.”

His most prolific spell in football came at Middlesbrough from November 2020 to January 2023. He had Neil Warnock to thank for giving him a second chance and the Manchester-born striker repaid Boro’s faith with 21 goals in 97 games.

Millwall bought him three January deadline days ago and he scored 12 goals for the Lions across two and a half seasons.

“My game has had to evolve in terms of minutes on the pitch. I know I can’t start every game, I know that I’ve got to be an impact player off the bench, I’ve tried to get better at that,” says Watmore.

“You might not have the same half-yard or the same sharpness, so you have to be a bit cleverer upstairs, using intelligence and experience to move better off the ball to find space. A lot of the chances you create can be by your movement off the ball. I’m always thinking of ways to compensate for my physical body, tailoring that by trying to get better at other things.”

After six months at home with his young family, he is eager to start imparting some of that wisdom at Rotherham United. The striker group he joins is led by Sam Nombe, 27, and has been bolstered by 17-year-old loanee Harry Gray, who already has two goals since joining from Leeds, and Gabriele Biancheri, 21, from Manchester United, during the window.

“I’ve always taken pride in trying to be good off the pitch,” continues Watmore. “I want to use my experience to help younger players to develop and pass on what I can.

“These young lads coming through are all so talented, if I can help them to handle the pressures of the game, then I’ll be very happy.”

And he is confident he has plenty left to give on the pitch, even if at first it might be 15 minutes here and there as he waits for his chance.

“It would be naive to try and play as many minutes as possible, it’s not where my body is at, so I’ll have to ease my way in,” says Watmore, who signed until the summer and is not looking too far beyond that. “I’ll be patient, I’ll be ready to help in whatever way I can.

“I’m excited. The time away has given me that perspective and that hunger to see what else I’ve still got.”