Shawcross retires due to back injury after 16-year career

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Defender Ryan Shawcross is retiring after a 16-year career that ended last season with David Beckham's Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.

The 34-year-old central defender and the team said Tuesday they have mutually terminated the contract agreed to last February.

Shawcross appeared in 12 games last year. He injured his back following the Aug. 8 match against Nashville and had back surgery on Sept. 21.

“Despite stepping out of my playing career due to injury, my passion for the game is still intact, and after having secured my coaching licenses, I am looking forward to pursuing a career in coaching,” Shawcross said in a statement.

Shawcross was Stoke’s captain from the 2009-10 season through 2020. He scored 25 goals in 453 appearances, including 401 games in the Premier League and second-tier League Championship.

He joined Stoke on loan from Manchester United in 2007, where he had been limited to two League Cup appearances, after he spent the second half of the 2006-07 season on loan at Belgium’s Royal Antwerp. His move to Stoke was made permanent the following January.

Shawcross made one appearance for England, in an exhibition against Sweden in November 2012.

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