Jermaine Jenas retires from football at the age of 32 having been disturbed by a knee injury.

The former England midfielder has officially declared his retirement from football career after failing to recover from a knee injury.

The 33-year old has been working a pundit for the BBC for the past two seasons and declared his retirement live on Radio 4’s Today programme, on Thursday morning, January 7th.

“I have officially retired. I tried my best to come back from the knee injury but unfortunately that is the end of my career,” he said.

Jenas’ last match was on 15th of March, 2014 in a 3-0 victory for QPR over Yeovil at Loftus Road in a Championship fixture. He injured his anterior cruciate knee ligament in training the month that followed.

Jenas was released by QPR at the end of the 2013-14 season as his contract got expired but was permitted to have access to the club’s facilities in a bid to return to full fitness, one which eventually failed.

The Wales international Gareth Bale, who happened to play with Jenas at Tottenham Hotspurs, led the tributes, with his tweet: ‘Sad to see @jjenas8 retire. Top career as a player and now one of the best pundits! Good luck mate!!’

Charlie Austin, who spent a season with Jenas at QPR, did the same: ‘Was a pleasure playing with @jjenas8 even though it was just for one year he was a top player/top bloke and now smashing it as a pundit.’

The former England international started his football career at Nottingham Forest in England and will be remembered best for his spells at Newcastle and Tottenham, making a total of 280 Premier League appearances and he found net 32 times.

He was part of the 2006 World Cup team for the Three Lions but did not feature in any match. He won the League Cup with Tottenham in 2008 and was awarded the PFA’s Young Player of the Year while at Newcastle in 2003.