Experienced midfielder Ryan Woods, then aged thirty, initially joined Exeter City on loan from Hull City in January 2024 ahead of signing permanently in July 2024. He had previously appeared for Shrewsbury Town, Brentford, Stoke City and Birmingham City before leaving St James' Park to join Oldham Athletic.

On the books of Walsall when at school Ryan became a Shrewsbury Town scholar/trainee in 2010 and, after making his first-team debut in April 2013, went on to make around a hundred league and cup appearances for the Shropshire club. Winning promotion with the Shrews and switching to Championship side Brentford in September 2015 for a reported £1 million fee, Ryan made almost 130 competitive appearances for his new club before signing for Stoke City in January 2019 after completing a loan period with the Potters.

Playing 35 league games for Stoke, but also appearing in over sixty first-team games for Millwall during two loan spells, Ryan joined Birmingham City on a permanent basis in June 2021 and made 33 league and cup appearances before signing for Hull City in August 2022 where he clocked-up 26 league appearances during 2022/23. He then spent the first half of the following season on loan at Bristol Rovers before a similar stint with Exeter City from the start of February 2024.

Ryan made his City debut as a late substitute against Peterborough United on 6 February 2024 and featured regularly throughout the remainder of the season as he started ten league games whilst coming on as a substitute on a further four occasions. Sent off at Northampton Town on 20 April 2024, he missed the final game at home to Oxford United before returning to Hull City where his contract was terminated by mutual consent allowing him to sign a permanent two-year deal with Exeter City ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.

Missing the opening two league games of the season, Ryan scored his first goal for the club in the 1-0 league win over Cambridge United on 5 October 2024 (this also being his first goal in any circumstances since November 2017 and only his fifth in nearly four hundred league games). Towards the end of December 2024 he added his second goal for City - direct from a corner - as the Grecians salvaged a 4-4 draw against Crawley Town. 

Whilst never an out-and-out regular Ryan went on to feature in around three-quarters of City's league games during the campaign - twenty-six times as a 'starter' - as his forty-odd first-team appearances in all competitions for the Grecians in 2024/25 brought his overall tally of EFL appearances to over 420 with a further forty or so in cup competitions. On a contract for the following season, he left City by 'mutual consent' in July 2025 to join Oldham Athletic.