The 25-year-old England defender looked comfortable in the practice match at Madrid's Las Rozas training ground against players aged between 15 and 17.

"He looked very good, for the 45 minutes, he did very well," said Real coach Wanderley Luxemburgo.

Woodgate, who cost Real £13.4m in August 2004, suffered a relapse of a thigh injury in October last year and as such has yet to make his debut for his new club.

However the defender has made real progress in the past few months and hopes are high in the Spanish capital that Woodgate, who has five England caps to his name, will be ready for first team action in the not too distant future.

"He has to regain his confidence little by little and then forget the injury he has suffered," Luxemburgo continued. "Then he can go on to play with the reserves in the second division.

"He has not played for at least 14 or 15 months and that is a long time to be out of action. With only two weeks of full training with the first team behind him he cannot play straight away.

"He has worked hard with the rest of his team-mates but he still has to work on other facets of the game and playing kick-abouts will help him a lot.

With only Francisco Pavón, Raúl Bravo and Iván Helguera as the other recognised centre-backs in Real's squad, Woodgate will know he has a good chance of a first-team place and a potential return to the England squad.

"It is impossible to calculate when Woodgate will be able to play at the top level again," Luxemburgo added. "We will let him tell us when he is ready and we will give him time to compete for a place with the other centre-backs and prove that he has recovered."

Real Madrid vice-president Emilio Butragueno believes the English centre-back will eventually be an important asset to the club.

"Woodgate is going to surprise a lot of people because he is going to become one of our most important recruits of the season," said Butragueno.

"He has sacrificed a great deal and now is the time for him to get his reward."