Jermain Defoe has shed more light on his decision to retire from football with immediate effect.
The veteran striker only returned to Sunderland on February 1 but last week announced his decision to hang up his boots despite a handful of games still remaining. The 39-year-old made a shock return to Wearside five years after leaving them, then in the Premier League. But after just seven appearances for the League One giants, Defoe abruptly announced he was calling it a day.
Appearing as a pundit on Sky Sports ' Super Sunday pre-match build-up the former England international says it was a decision partly made to ensure he does not block the pathway for young players at Sunderland. Defoe said: "I spoke to someone the other day and I said if it's a series on Netflix then it'd be great! I come back and we get into the play-offs and then get promoted.
"But it's football and you just never know what is going to happen. When you get to the back end of your career and you're in and out of the team and not really playing then I think it becomes harder. Because what happens is if you don't play on the Saturday then the Sunday you might be training. I feel like when you're not playing, you're training harder to get yourself up to speed.
"Before I went back to Sunderland I hadn't played anywhere for like six months so I was trying to get up to speed which was difficult anyway. You get little niggles and I felt restricted in terms of my movement. It wasn't only that but it's about maybe blocking the way for someone else coming through. There's good players coming back from injury. I didn't really want to block the way for someone else coming back."
Sunderland chief Alex Neil admits Defoe's decision came as a huge shock for him and the squad. Speaking last week, he said: "I'll be honest, it was a bit of a shock. There wasn't a lot of conversations prior to it. He trained that day and he trained well and then the next minute we got word that he felt that he wanted to call it a day.
"It's difficult, particularly for someone like Jermain with the career he had, because you know as a player when you feel it's time. Unfortunately for Jermain he got to that point. I've spoken to him since but at the time it was a shock to everybody. It certainly wasn't something that was being spoken about regularly, maybe behind the scenes, but it wasn't a conversation me and him had had. He's made the decision now and we have to respect it and wish him all the best."
Sunderland beat Gillingham 1-0 on Saturday to move into the play-off places with six games remaining.
