In this study, the analytical solutions of the radial Schr¨odinger equation for the central Woods–Saxon potential together with spin-orbit interaction and centrifugal terms have been derived by using Nikiforov-Uvarov method. The energy eigenvalues and corresponding eigenfunctions of nucleons have been obtained for various values of n, l, and j quantum numbers. The obtained results using this method are in satisfactory agreement with available data in the special case.