A PRODUCT of Derby County's youth system, Riggott quickly developed into one of the brightest young central defenders in the country.

He worked closely with former Boro coach Steve Round at Derby when he started to establish himself in the Pride Park first team in 2000 and he also worked under Steve McClaren and Bill Beswick.

An England U21 international, Chris was reportedly a £7m target for Liverpool towards the end of the 2001/02 season but the deal never materialised.

He joined Boro together with striker Malcolm Christie on transfer deadline day in January 2003.

Initially Chris came on a three-month loan, with a guaranteed permanent transfer to follow on at the end. 

His task of breaking into the Boro first team meant breaking up the England international partnership of Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu but Chris soon showed he was up to the task.

A month after joining the club he scored twice in a 3-1 win at Sunderland, with former Derby team-mate Christie adding the other.  

Gradually Chris shook off the deputy tag to become one of Boro's most reliable defenders.

The 2006-07 campaign was a wretched one for Chris after he sustained a serious knee injury in just the third game of the season against Portsmouth and was out from August to December.

Further niggling injuries continued to restrict his first team appearances and he spent the latter part of the 2007/08 season on loan helping Stoke City's Coca-Cola Championship promotion challenge.

Again injuries played their part in 2008-09, restricting the talented centre-back to 20 games covering three competitions.

His final game was in the first week of February, though he was an unused sub after that. He had an ankle operation towards the end of that season.

An operation in May 2009 was designed to alleviate ankle problems, but further surgery was needed in early September.