Jonny Wilkinson reveals his reasons for retiring

England Rugby legend Jonny Wilkinson has revealed that he retired from playing rugby as he’d had enough of the training that is required to play rugby at such a high level.

Thirty-five-year-old Wilkinson finished his career as a European Cup and Top14 champion after winning the Rugby World Cup 11 years earlier.

Wilkinson kicked a drop goal in the last minute of the 2003 Rugby World Cup but his career stuttered after several injury setbacks and in 2009 he joined Toulon.

The star flyhalf has now revealed that while he is still training he turned down the opportunity to help his former club Toulon out of an injury crisis.

“I probably could have played on longer. But I’d had enough of putting myself through that. As soon as that touches, my body shuts down,” Wilkinson told the Times.

Wilkinson had planned to retire a year earlier but when Toulon won the Heineken Cup and lost in the Top14 final to Castres he was motivated to play for another year.

“I thought, ‘You can do this. There’s no point in going out now. You’ll regret it. You’re in an amazing team, make the most of it, go for it next year.’

“Then, suddenly, I had committed to another year and it was almost like, ‘If we don’t go out and do the double, all I can do is fail.’ The pressure of doing that swamped the joy of it.”

A year later Wilkinson and Toulon were crowned double champions and Wilkinson said that the time was right for him to retire.

“At the end of my career it wasn’t that my body gave out, it was that mentally I’d had enough of living like that,” he said.