Leeds United’s Stuart Dallas has unfortunately announced he will be retiring from football at the end of the season.
Dallas has spent the last two years on the sidelines attempting to recover from a fractured femur in a match with Manchester City back in April 2022.
The 32-year-old has undergone a number of surgeries and long rehabilitation programme to get himself back fit but unfortunately just has not been able to do so, and as such, has announced his plans to hang up his boots.
Just a couple of weeks Dallas had still harnessed hopes of potentially playing again but clearly it has been a long and complex injury to recover from.
Dallas will leave undoubtedly leave Leeds as a club legend just like many of his teammates from the promotion season under Marcelo Bielsa, having made 266 appearances, scoring 28 goals.
Dallas pay tribute to Leeds and Northern Ireland after retirement
Tributes to Dallas are undoubtedly likely to be pouring in across the next few hours after his announcement, with two of his former teammates Luke Ayling and Leif Davis the first to respond.
Dallas posted a long message onto his Instagram account earlier this afternoon explaining how ‘tirelessly’ he has worked to get back playing over the last two years.
But most of all, he wanted to thank all of the former teammates and managers he has worked with while at Leeds and Northern Ireland, reserving special gratitude for Liam Cooper, Bielsa and Michael O’Neill.
He hailed his time under Bielsa as the ‘greatest years of his career’ for making him realise his dream of playing Premier League football, which had seemed so far away.
Dallas also spoke of Cooper as an ‘incredible captain, teammate and friend whose talent and contribution to the the team often goes unrecognised’. Most of all, though, he says he is a ‘wonderful human’.
Ayling and Davis react as Dallas announces his retirement from football
Dallas was a player loved by everyone at Leeds and so with this sad news, he will undoubtedly be receiving a whole host of messages today.
As mentioned, Ayling and Davis were among the first to react to his Instagram post, having both been apart of Leeds’ promotion winning squad.
Dallas shared the field on many occasions with Bielsa, while Davis was a youngster coming through the ranks of the academy at the time.
Given he is only 32, clearly this is a sad day for everyone at Leeds but at least he can now focus on getting his knee fully right without the worry of trying to play again.