Former Hartlepool Winger Butler Forced To Retire

Former Hartlepool United, Sunderland and Swansea City winger Thomas Butler has been forced to retire from football with a thigh injury.

31-year-old Butler had not played a professional game since April 2010 after suffering a persistent thigh problem and has now chosen to hang up his boots.

Irishman Butler started his career at Sunderland and enjoyed a spell at Dunfermline Athletic before joining Hartlepool in March 2005. He soon became a regular for the club, starting Pools' play-off final with Sheffield Wednesday.

In total Butler played 44 games for the club, scoring four goals, before moving to Swansea City in June 2006 for a fee of £35,000. He spent six years at the Welsh club before being released by former boss Brendan Rodgers in January 2012.

Butler trained with several clubs but took the decision to retire after a re-occurrence of a thigh problem. He told the South Wales Evening Post: ''I think when you have had the injury problems I have had, your body is trying to tell you that you've probably had enough.

''Over the past few years I have taken a lot of painkillers and had a lot of injections. In a way there is a feeling of relief for me that I don't have to worry about trying to get fit now.''

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