Pilgrims captain Sawyer is forced to call it a day
GARY Sawyer will remain at Plymouth Argyle in a club ambassador role after retiring from professional football at the age of 35.
The defender and club captain has been advised to hang up his boots due to an ankle injury he suffered at the start of this season.
Sawyer, who has made 298 appearances for the Pilgrims in two spells at the club, will also be a coach within the academy.
In addition to that, he will work with the Argyle Community Trust, who are responsible for staging numerous events.
Sawyer, who was brought up in Bideford, started his career at Home Park as an apprentice before stepping up to the professional ranks.
Then after five years away he was returned to Argyle in the summer of 2015 when he was signed by manager Derek Adams.
Sawyer sustained his ankle injury in the 3-2 EFL Trophy defeat by Norwich City Under-21s at Home Park last September.
Despite his best efforts over the months since then, the defender has been unable to return to action.
Sawyer told Argyle’s official club website: “I knew it was bad. As soon as I did it, I looked at my foot because it felt like it was facing the other way. It’s the most severe injury I have suffered in my career. We made the decision with the surgeon, we took his advice.
“Unfortunately, for me to get back to the level that I would need to compete at in professional football, I just won’t be able to make that grade anymore.
“I have tried and done everything I could possibly do with the physio staff to get back to that level, but my ankle just won’t take it anymore.”
Sawyer continued: “The Gaffer (Ryan Lowe), Andrew Parkinson and Neil Dewsnip spoke to me and saw where my head was lying with it.
“I had always said that it would be perfect to roll from playing football to working at the football club.
“I feel like I have a lot to offer the football club having been through every rung of it.
“It was something that I was really interested in, and that’s what makes having to retire easier.
“It gives me a new focus, new drive and I get to work for the club I have supported and played for.
“I will go into an ambassador role for the club, that will be really interesting. It keeps me around the boys and the fans.
“I like being involved in those sorts of things, and I always felt that would be the ideal job for me, knowing what the club means to people, it means the same to me.”
Sawyer was the captain as Argyle secured promotion from League Two last season on a points-pergame basis after it was curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He started 28 of their 37 league games in the first season with Lowe as the Pilgrims’ boss.
His total of 298 appearances during his two spells with Argyle puts him 27th in the club’s all-time list.