His first few months at Middlesbrough hadn’t gone to plan and he felt like he “wasn’t being himself” on and off the pitch.
The Brazilian full-back confided in his wife and was honest about his struggle.
At Clermont, in France, where Borges was captain, the defender was a big personality in the dressing room and it was his character as much as his ability that appealed to Boro’s recruitment and coaching team in the summer.
But in those early months on Teesside, Borges felt a shadow of his usual self on and off the pitch.
“First when I arrived expectations were high,” says the 28-year-old, looking back.
“Boro are a big club, I was very excited to join the club but things didn’t work out for the first four or five months.
“Emotionally and on the pitch I wasn’t myself.
“I was talking to my wife during the first six months and saying I can’t be myself and show the emotion I normally show.
“I wasn’t playing with that fire. It felt hard for me. I was struggling in games. I understand the frustration of the fans and why they didn’t like me to start with.
“The weather was a big, big problem for me. At 4pm it was dark and I wasn’t used to it. But I came here to play football and I started focusing on that. It was a hard six months but now things are in a better place.”
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A much better place. Borges has been Boro’s best player over the course of the last six weeks or so. He recovered superbly from what must have been a huge blow when he was dropped following the return of Ryan Giles.
But he soon won back his place and doesn’t look like losing it again anytime soon. In defeat and despair, Borges rediscovered the fire that he talks about above.
There was the scene at Bristol City when he stood alone in front of the away end after the Ashton Gate defeat and was consoled by Michael Carrick. Then the passionate celebrations at Stoke a few days later.
“Now I’m feeling like myself again,” he said in an interview with the club website.
“Now, showing that emotion and playing with fire, that’s me. From now on, that’s what everyone is going to see.
“The fans have been special, at home and away. When we lose a game I want to show some respect. At Bristol I just showed some respect. They travelled, we lost the game. I just wanted to hear what they wanted to tell me.
“I was missing the winning feeling at the time. After Stoke I was celebrating and we were all celebrating and showing how much it means. We wanted to show the fans how important they are to us.”
And Borges believes that grim spell of successive defeats for Boro in February brought strength to the dressing room.
“In life when you struggle in something as a team it brings you together more,” he says.
“You support each other, you have to go through hard periods and get better relationships. The team is tighter now and more together. We want to achieve the goals of the club.”
It isn’t just Borges who has settled and is now happy on Teesside, the same can be said of his two-year-old boy.
“It took four or five months for my boy to be a Boro supporter,” he says.
“Now he’s saying Up The Boro but when we first arrived he was saying he wanted to go back, because (Clermont) was the first club where he’d seen me doing well.
“But he’s seen how special the fans are as well here now. He’s only two years old but now he loves it here.
“Middlesbrough are my team and at home I have my team. They make everything easier for me. My wife is amazing, my boy is an amazing boy, he’s so smart and I love them so much. They mean everything to me.”
Borges’ family helped him through those challenging early days at Boro, as did a fellow new arrival – George Edmundson.
“It was a good connection to have,” says Borges.
“We arrived in the same week. I was eating in the restaurant and he came and sat next to me.
“Since then we have a good connection and talk. He’s helped me with a lot of things. He gave me some advice about the league. We are good friends.”
With Edmundson, Dael Fry and Rav van den Berg having all been sidelined through injury, Borges has had to cover at centre-half and has done so superbly.
“The gaffer said to me he knew I’d be OK doing it,” says Borges.
“The team have made it easier for me. Everyone has my back.”
The hope now for Borges is that a season that started with a struggle ends in style.
“We want to be there (in the top six) and we will work hard to get there for sure,” he says.
“The fans are always important. When they support us like they did through the hard moments, they mean everything to us. They are doing their part, we need to do our part.”
