Skip to content

Jose Enrique retires due to knee injury

Jose Enrique in Pre-Season action for Liverpool
Image: Enrique spent four years at Liverpool

Former Liverpool and Newcastle defender Jose Enrique has announced his retirement from football at the age of 31.

The full-back left Real Zaragoza at the end of last season and told Spanish newspaper Marca that he will stop playing due to a long-term knee injury.

He said: "I could not play without medication, I did not even train. It was hard, desperate.

"Sometimes I got dizzy in training on so much medication.

"After every game my knee swelled like a ball and I was barely able to walk for three days. Something that was supposed to be for three months ended up turning into two years.

"I saw five doctors in England but they did not get the problem.

Super 6 £1m jackpot
Super 6 £1m jackpot

There will be a guaranteed millionaire made this weekend. Enter your predictions for free here.

"It hurts me, but so many times they told me that it was a psychological problem that I came to believe it."

Also See:

Enrique made 127 appearances for Newcastle between 2007 and 2011 before a £6.5m move to Liverpool, for whom he played 99 times before leaving in September 2016.

He had surgery on the injury in Spain but the procedure was not enough to save his career.

"I was never the same, it was frustrating," he said. "I had been playing for three months with a broken meniscus.

"I had to escape to Spain because I could not even walk. I could not compete and I had a terrible time.

"I had an anxiety attack and thought, 'what the hell is wrong with me?' I did not understand it."

Around Sky