Villa's Laursen calls it quits

Aston Villa's captain Martin Laursen has called it quits to his career following persistent injuries.

The former Danish international has had an injury plagued career and has not played a game since January when he injured his knee.

He had joined Aston Villa from AC Milan in 2004 where he had the knee problems as well.However those injury problems seemed a thing of the past as he became a formidable part of the Birmingham based club's defense.

He had announced retirement from international football in January after his injury and now his complete retirement has come as a shock to manager,Martin O'Neil and many Villa fans.

The Aston Villa website read :

Villa are sad to announce Martin Laursen's retirement from football," a statement on the club's website read.

The club captain made the decision after being faced with another lengthy spell on the sidelines.

He elected to hang up his boots rather than undergo another major operation - this time on his right knee.

The retirement of the lion-hearted defender will be a huge loss to the players, manager and fans.

Speaking to Sky News,Martin O'Neil paid tribute to his former captain,

It is sad news for everyone at the football club because he has been inspirational for us.

It is a particular blow for him obviously because he can no longer play and that is very hard to take.

The irony of course is the fact that the injury happened to his very good knee, which hadn't had any problems, and he is obviously devastated as we all are.

The forecast was gloomy a couple of weeks ago and he has come to the conclusion he wouldn't be able to continue.

I have obviously lost a top-quality centre-half and a top-quality leader.

Aston Villa have had a dreadful end to the season which sees them qualify for Europa Cup at the best where they could have been challenging Arsenal for the fourth place in the League,thus earning a qualifying berth in the Champions League. Martin Laursen would most definitely need to bolster his defense after his losing such a strong player,both physically and mentally.