AUGUST 9, 2015. A date Dael Fry will never forget.

Preston away on the opening day of the Championship season for a Middlesbrough side looking to go one better after suffering play-off final heartbreak a few months earlier.

With Ben Gibson out injured, Aitor Karanka was forced to tinker with his defence and called on 17-year-old Fry. It was his full debut for the club he'd joined as a kid 10 years earlier and supported all of his life.

"It feels like yesterday," says Fry looking back.

"I remember telling my mum and dad and they were absolutely buzzing.

"I just remember being so nervous but at Preston you walk out in the corner and I saw all the red in the away stand, it was all sold out, and I just thought ‘wow, these are the games you want to play in’.

"As soon as the game kicked off the nerves went, we drew 0-0, it’s mad how quick time goes."

Here we are a decade later, with Fry, now in his testimonial year, still playing for the club he loves and still dreaming of wearing red in the Premier League.

"My sister just reminded me the other day that it’s my 20th year at the club," he says.

"When she said it I just thought that it was absolutely mental. It’s bizarre.

"For me to do that for my hometown team is surreal and the next step is to get Middlesbrough promoted and to play for them in the Premier League."

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That Preston game was the start of a promotion-winning season for Boro but Fry spent the first half of the following campaign out on loan at Rotherham and, although he returned to make a couple of FA Cup appearances, he didn't play in the top flight.

But he's played hundreds of games since for Boro, a constant in the rollercoaster years of Championships ups and downs, a diehard supporter on the pitch and a face instantly recognisable around the town and area.

"Every game playing for Boro is special to me," he says.

"But it can be quite hard as well because everyone from Middlesbrough knows me. I go to Morrisons and everyone knows me. But I love that as well.

"And it's good because if we get a result at the weekend I know everyone in the town is happy. It's fantastic playing for my hometown team.

"It's hard when you've lost. You have your family and friends and they'll go to work and be getting asked about stuff. But the older I've got, the more I've learnt how to deal with it."

He's had a mentor along the way as well in Jonathan Woodgate, the former defender who knows what it's like to play for your hometown club. Woodgate loves Fry as a player and a bloke and has always been extremely supportive - but Fry wishes he was able to better repay that faith when his fellow Teessider was in charge.

"I still look back on that time of my career (when Woodgate was Boro boss) with a bit of regret," he reveals.

"Woody had so much faith in me and it was so stop-start for me and I had loads of little niggles.

"I always heard the stuff he was saying and I really wanted to back that up for him and prove him right but I never felt like I did.

"Now I actually feel like I can do that. I train with Woody day in, day out and he's so good with the defensive lads."

That he now feels he's able to deliver is down to his perseverance and hard work during one of the most testing spells of his career. Fry missed nine months of 2024 with a string of injury setbacks. It started with a double hernia that required surgery in the summer, then a couple of further injuries delayed his return. But he put his time out to good use and now feels he's in the best condition of his career.

"At first we didn't know the severity of the injury," he says.

"I was just sort of getting injections and trying to deal with it. But then we decided we couldn't keep going like that, I needed to know what it was and deal with it.

"In the summer I ended up getting surgery but came back a little bit too early and done my calf twice. So I thought right I'm going to use this time now and was in the gym, doing all my conditioning, eating right and the past couple of months for me have been top. I feel like I'm in the best shape I can be in."

Throughout his time on the sidelines however, Fry did have a very welcome distraction to keep him busy, his baby daughter.

"That was the hardest year of my life, the first one, with the nightfeeds," he laughs.

"I didn’t realise how much your life would change but now she is walking, talking and it’s fantastic.

"There are things more important than football and I’ve realised that since becoming a father. As hard as it is, it’s beautiful."

So what, in another 10 years, does Fry want to have achieved on the pitch?

"I want to be in the Premier League with Middlesbrough," he says.

"I did think that would have come a bit sooner but it hasn't been meant to be. But this year there's just a different feeling. Even with the coaching staff. It just feels a little bit different. There's strength all over the pitch.

"We’ve had some really good squads over the years but we haven’t quite made it. This year, I feel there’s something different.

"The year that we got promoted, I really feel like there is a little bit of that feeling coming back and we’ve got a right good chance. We have strength in depth all over the place.

"I still feel like I’ve got a lot more to give with Middlesbrough. This is the best that I’ve felt in my career.

"I’ve been in and out injured quite a bit but now I’ve got no niggles, no injuries and hopefully I can continue for a lot more years at Middlesbrough."