Ryan Michael Woods (born 13 December 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for EFL League One club Exeter City.

Woods struggled for game time at Stoke following a change of managers and he spent one-and-a-half seasons on loan at Millwall.

[4] Woods received his maiden call into the first team squad for a League One match at home to Carlisle United on 15 December 2012, but remained an unused substitute during the 2–1 win.

[5] After six further calls into the squad,[5] Woods made his debut as an 89th-minute substitute for Aaron Wildig in a 1–0 home win over Oldham Athletic on 23 April 2013.

[7] Woods made his first senior start for Shrewsbury Town in a 2–2 draw away at Rotherham United on 24 August 2013,[8] playing at right back owing to a shortage of defenders.

[10] Having established himself in the first team, with 43 appearances in all competitions in 2013–14,[10] he triggered a clause in his contract to extend his stay at the club for at least another season, despite the Shrews' relegation to League Two.

[12] Woods had an excellent 2014–15 season,[citation needed] making 51 appearances and helping Shrewsbury secure automatic promotion back to League One with a second-place finish.

[28] Aside from a short period out of the team for personal reasons,[29] Woods continued as an ever-present during the early months of the 2017–18 season and scored his first goal of the campaign in a 3–1 victory over Leeds United on 4 November 2017.

[30] He received the first red card of his career as a result of "scuffling over the ball" with Sheffield United goalkeeper Jamal Blackman during a 1–1 draw on 30 March 2018.

[50] However, the team's lack of goals and defensive frailty meant Woods lost his starting place in favour of the more defensively solid Gary Gardner: according to head coach Lee Bowyer, "The stability comes at the cost of the attacking fluency because you are taking Ryan Woods out of the team and, whether you like it or not, we give the ball away too much.

[53][54] After serving his suspension, Woods returned to the starting eleven for the 6–2 defeat at Fulham in mid-January and remained a regular for the next six weeks,[55] taking advantage of having "technically-assured team-mates to pass the ball to" in recent arrivals Onel Hernández and Juninho Bacuna.

[56] Despite the Mail's belief that his ball retention was important to the side,[57] Bowyer changed formation to accommodate Tahith Chong's return from injury, Woods lost his place to the defensive midfielder Ivan Šunjić,[58] and he made only four appearances in the last two months of the season.

[59] Under new head coach John Eustace, Woods started Birmingham's first two league matches of the 2022–23 season, but was a late withdrawal from the squad for the third amid rumours that he was about to join division rivals Hull City.

[67] On 2 July 2024, Woods signed for Exeter City on a permanent two-year contract after the successful loan spell with the Grecians during the second half of the 2023-24 season.

[74] The magazine reported that he demonstrates "an ability to play a range [of] passes, as well as easily creating space for himself" and quoted Shrewsbury Town manager Micky Mellon as saying "he's the first player on the training pitch and the last off.