LUCKLESS ROVERS MIDFIELDER CORRY CONFIRMS HIS RETIREMENT PLAN

SHAMROCK ROVERS midfielder Paul Corry has accepted defeat in his long-running battle with injury and announced he is retiring from football, WRITES DANIEL McDONNELL.

The 26-year-old former UCD, Sheffield Wednesday and Northampton midfielder had come home to Ireland in an attempt to resurrect his career with the Hoops.

But he has not been able to make any impact with Rovers and has been out of action since May due to continued problems with a knee that he severely damaged on the Northampton training ground in 2015 with one expert describing the damage as the worst they’d ever seen.

Corry (right) confirmed that he is hanging up his boots and opened up on the extent of his struggles in the new LOI Weekly podcast which is available on independent.ie from this morning.

He expanded on the loneliness of trying to battle back from a long-term problem while on his own in the UK.

And Corry – who broke straight into the Sheffield Wednesday first team in the months after arriving from UCD in the autumn of 2012 – explained that he has given up on a comeback because he was told it risked longer-term implications.

“It’s come to a stage where I’m not going to be able to play on,” said Corry.

“I had my lateral cruciate ligament repaired and my ACL repaired and the meniscus on the lateral side of things is causing problems.

“I was told if I pushed it for a year or two I could be looking at a knee replacement in five years and could be walking with a limp in ten years and I’m not prepared to take that massive risk.

“I already have early-stage arthritis in parts of my knee.

Last Wednesday night I was up at 5am in morning for 45 minutes in complete agony.”

The Dubliner never quite felt right with Rovers this term when he tried to step up the intensity and the final blow was on the training ground earlier this summer. “I accelerated to close Graham Burke down and as I’ve done that I’ve felt it go again. I had a two-minute walk (to dressing room) and I put the bib over my head and cried my eyes out,” he said. At underage level with Ireland, Corry played with the likes of Jeff Hendrick and Conor Hourihane and admits it’s hard to watch their progress while misfortune set him back.

“I’m 26, the injury initially happened me when I was 24 and sometimes I sit there thinking I don’t ever hear of anyone having an injury at 24 that’s had to retire,” said Corry who has already started coaching work with Rovers and his former club Belvedere. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow but I’ve a future ahead of me and there’s more to life than football.”

To listen to Corry’s full interview where he also discusses the value of his education, his future plans and learning who to trust in English football then go to independent.ie/podcasts or search ‘LOI Weekly’ on iTunes