From leading ITV’s World Cup coverage to heavyweight fights in Saudi Arabia – Laura Woods has become one of the leading names in sports broadcasting in recent years.
The 36-year-old is best known for hosting TNT Sports’ Champions League, Premier League and boxing coverage after joining last year from talkSPORT, where she starred as the breakfast show presenter.
However, Woods has missed television duties of late and was noticeably absent in the build-up to Tyson Fury’s heavyweight unification fight in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Woods has explained her recent absence from television by revealing she is recovering from surgery after suffering serious injuries to her face and arms while on holiday after a freak accident saw the presenter hurl a pillow into a glass lampshade, which shattered and gave her cuts. face and arm.
With Woods likely to be absent from the screens for Saturday night’s undisputed heavyweight championship match between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, Mail Sport looks back at the presenter’s exclusive interview with DOMINIC KING during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING
Laura Woods shared images of the cut on her right eyebrow, which left blood streaming down her face
Woods has explained her recent absence from television by revealing she is recovering from surgery after suffering serious injuries to her face and arms while on holiday.
Woods underwent emergency surgery and posted an image showing the cut closed with stitches
All it takes is one reference to Argentina and in a flash Laura Woods starts talking for five minutes straight. She is so animated that her answer starts with Lionel Messi, cuts into the background of a row on the screen and ends with Roy Keane being compared to David Attenborough.
For context, let’s look back at the first match of Group C – that spectacular afternoon when Saudi Arabia achieved one of the most incredible, unexpected results in World Cup history by coming from behind at the Lusail Stadium to beat Messi and beating Co 2-1.
A day earlier, Woods had made her own World Cup debut, with ITV covering the Netherlands’ comfortable defeat to Senegal with Ian Wright and Gary Neville. If that was a sensation, the realization of a childhood dream, it was nothing compared to what awaited us.
The story was big enough, but a spin-off from it was the televised moment of the tournament when Roy Keane and Mail Sport columnist Graeme Souness went at each other, over Argentina’s controversial penalty, with the ferocity of two bison cracking skulls. It was fascinating to watch.
“We were told that Argentina sold out the first two group matches faster than any other country,” says Woods, as she sips a coffee at her West Bay hotel. “So we knew it was going to be big, but I didn’t expect it to be this big. I didn’t expect the sound to be like this.
‘I have never been to a football match and I have experienced something like this before in my life. And of course the story is that it will be Messi’s fifth and last World Cup, he could win it and all that romance.
‘Then suddenly the script is completely torn apart. And you handle the script being torn up with Roy on your right, Graeme and Joe Cole on your left. You look around at these fans just standing on their feet, beating the drums, singing and dancing all the time and you think, “Wow! How did I get here?’ It’s unbelievable.”
She now zigzags between surprise and excitement. Keane was in disbelief that a penalty had been awarded. Souness was convinced that VAR had made the right decision. Voices raised, fingers pricked. And like all the best presenters, Woods stepped back and left them to their own devices.
ITV’s Woods spoke exclusively to Mail Sport about fulfilling her childhood dream by presenting at the World Cup in Qatar
She reflected on the thrill of watching Lionel Messi watch his side lose to Saudi Arabia
“Then comes the break and there’s the disagreement between Roy and Graeme,” Woods continues. ‘I sat there as a fan for a long time. I just watched it and I couldn’t believe it. I experienced what everyone else at home experiences when they watch it.
‘You think: “What’s going on? How great is this?” I looked at Joe at one point and we were in disbelief. So I said, “What about you, Joe?” Joe always has an opinion, but his voice is as soft as I’ve ever heard it and he says sheepishly: “I thought it was a penalty…” It was just brilliant!
‘But there are also other moments that people don’t see at home. This is where privilege comes into play. I told Roy that I had never seen him play in real life. Roy said: “Just take a look at Messi… It looks like he’s not interested and is just walking around while everyone else is running. But he knows where everyone is. He knows where the ball is and he reads the game like no one else reads it.”
‘As we watched, the ball was passed and Messi made a run and scored. It was offside, the one where his shoulder was just slightly offside, but the kind of poetry of it, where Roy Keane almost… it was almost like he was narrating like David Attenborough.”
Just like Bos. She knows that every time she steps in front of the camera, she will be subjected to all kinds of scrutiny, with any misstep likely to be picked up by social media. But years of experience and dedication to intensive preparation led to this opportunity of a lifetime.
It is not, she firmly admits, a World Cup that will ever be forgotten for all kinds of reasons, but through it all she is determined to maintain the enthusiasm that radiates when she looks through the lens. How could you, Woods suggests, not be excited about an opportunity like this?
“We want to come and do our job as best we can,” she says. ‘We have excellent reporters on site and we recently showed an eight-minute feature film. I’ve never seen such a long article in any reporting I’ve ever done, and it was specifically about LGBTQ+ rights.
Woods couldn’t believe what she saw during the feud between Graeme Souness and Roy Keane
Woods’ experience and dedication to intense preparation led to this opportunity of a lifetime
‘I thought it was brilliant. It’s important that you show that because in a way the opposite of sports washing has happened in this World Cup, in that the eyes of the world are on the atrocities – and the eyes of the world are now on those human rights issues . If the football wasn’t there it wouldn’t be shown.’
The point is fair and she pauses to think. But soon she smiles again. On Sunday she was on the pitch as England banished the ITV hoodoo with a knockout win over Senegal and on Tuesday she will host Spain’s date with Morocco.
“Look, how can I not smile? asks Bos. ‘I am in my element at this World Cup and I say that specifically about football. I go to games, I report on these magical moments in the company of some of the game’s most legendary players. What are the chances of experiencing something like that?’
