Tuesday 14 June 2016 11:06, UK
Former Liverpool and Norway defender John Arne Riise has announced his retirement from football at the age of 35.
The left full-back, a Champions League winner with the Reds in 2005, has made 10 appearances for his first club Aalesund back in his homeland this season.
However, he has decided to walk away from the game after realising he is no longer able to cope with the physical demands of a top-flight league.
"My inner goal was to play football at the Norwegian top level until I was 40. But that is not to be. It stops here," he wrote on his personal website.
"Lately there has emerged a completely new feeling in me that I am no longer strong enough to perform at my best.
"I like to play football but the motivation is still not strong enough to run the race at the highest level. This body - and this head - has been through so much over the last 20 years.
"It is heavy and painful admission and very full of emotion but it is most of all honest."
Riise, who was capped 110 times in a 14-year international career with Norway, also played for Monaco, Roma, Fulham, APOEL.
He also turned out for Delhi Dynamos in the 2015 Indian Super League
"John was an absolutely fabulous player and someone who everybody at Delhi Dynamos Football Club will miss greatly," club president Prashant Agarwal told Sky Sports.
"He'll always be special to us. He was one of the pillars of our successful ISL 2015 campaign, helping us reach the play-offs, and his towering presence made a huge difference to the dressing room.
"John will always remain a friend of Delhi Dynamos and still has a promising career ahead of him in football."
