MIDDLESBROUGH have offered Jonathan Woodgate an emotional return to Teesside by proposing a season-long loan deal that might eventually lead to a permanent switch from Real Madrid.

But with Sylvain Distin having turned down a move to the Riverside, Emanuel Pogatetz has promised to save Middlesbrough a fortune by plugging the club's centre-half chasm himself.

Gareth Southgate's move into management has left his side critically short of established centre-halves, an ailment that the Boro boss has spent the majority of the summer attempting to remedy.

An early move for Robert Huth was scuppered when the Chelsea defender failed a medical and, despite agreeing a £4.5m fee with Manchester City for the services of Distin, the Frenchman is expected to publicly rebuff Boro's advances later today.

That has forced Southgate to look elsewhere and, with the transfer window due to close in just six days time, his sights have now been trained on Middlesbrough-born Woodgate.

The injury-plagued defender, who joined Real Madrid in a £13m move from Newcastle in August 2004, has suffered a succession of hamstring and back problems since moving to the Bernabeu.

He has returned to full fitness since missing this summer's World Cup finals but despite featuring extensively in Real's pre-season programme, Madrid boss Fabio Capello is ready to listen to offers.

That has alerted a number of Premiership clubs, including Newcastle, Bolton and Portsmouth, but Southgate is hoping to steal a march on his rivals by appealing to Woodgate's Teesside roots and all but guaranteeing him first-team football at the Riverside.

The Boro boss, who expects to make at least two new signings before the transfer window finally swings shut at the end of the month, is also negotiating with Chelsea over the future of Huth and tracking highly-rated Preston striker David Nugent.

"I expect to have people in before the end of the month," said Southgate. "I'm confident that we will have added to the squad by this time next week."

By the end of next month, former full-back Abel Xavier could also be back on board following the end of his 12-month ban for taking a prohibited substance.

The former Portugal international, who has always protested his innocence despite testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid dianabol, is currently training with the rest of the Boro squad, although Southgate is yet to make a final decision on whether to offer him a new one-year deal.

"Middlesbrough as a club, and myself as a person, do not condone the taking of drugs in sport in any way," said Southgate. "This is a situation we have contemplated long and hard.

"But Abel has protested his innocence throughout this - he feels it's more a case of negligence than trying to cheat. FIFA clearly feel there's been a certain injustice in his case because they shortened his ban to a year.

"Whether he's innocent or guilty, he's had a year ban and he's served his time. Myself and the club feel that people have the right to rebuild their lives or rebuild their career."

Southgate is rapidly running out of time as he looks to strengthen his backline but, in the wake of Wednesday night's thrilling 2-1 win over Chelsea, Pogatetz has insisted there is no need for his former team-mate to panic.

The Austria international, who is better known as a left-back following his maiden season in the English game, has spent the opening two games of this campaign playing alongside Chris Riggott at the heart of the Boro defence.

And after successfully blunting both Andriy Shevchenko and Didier Drogba, the 23-year-old is ready to play a central role in the rest of Middlesbrough's season.

"There has been a lot of talk about the manager signing a centre-half this summer, but I would like to think I can get rid of the need to do that," said Pogatetz, who capped Wednesday's dominant defensive display with the headed equaliser that preceded Mark Viduka's heart-stopping injury-time winner.

"Centre-half is my favourite position. I played a couple of games there last season and although I am also happy to play at left-back, I would much prefer to play in the middle.

"There is obviously a bit of a gap there with Gareth having taken over as manager and I would love to be the one to fill it.

"If I can a play a few games in a row at centre-half, that is the position where I think I can play at my best. I hope that I can play there this season.

"If they bring defenders in it will obviously be a challenge for me. But if I play like I did (on Wednesday), I am confident that I will play a lot of games no matter what happens in the rest of this month."