Le Tissier calls time on Saints career

Matthew Le Tissier has announced he will end his 16-year Southampton career next month. The former England midfielder has chosen to retire after his testimonial match at St Mary's Stadium on 14 May.

The 33-year-old, out of contract at the end of this season, has endured an injury-plagued final season and decided he was fighting a losing battle to regain his fitness.

Le Tissier said: "In the end it was not a hard decision. I have been tending more and more towards this over recent months. It has been terribly frustrating at times.

"It has been an increasing trend over the last three years, with one niggling injury after another. I could not face another season like this one."

Le Tissier, who scored 209 goals in his 462 appearances but managed only five of those – all as a substitute– in the current campaign, was capped eight times by England. He will remain at Southampton in an "ambassadorial" role, but felt unable to continue as a player and face the prospect of picking up wages for a job in which he no longer felt able to give his all.

"Even if the club offered me a contract for sentimental reasons I could not take money under false pretenses," he said. "If I thought I could play on at my best then that would be different – but my body is not so much giving me hints as screaming at me."

Leicester City's former England goalkeeper Tim Flowers has been told he can leave on a free transfer.

Flowers, who has a year left on his contract after joining from Blackburn Rovers in July 1999, has suffered a number of injuries and has been out of favour since the arrival of Ian Walker from Tottenham Hotspur last summer.

The 35-year-old, who earned 11 England caps the last in May 1998, has played only three times in the Premiership this season, and has spent periods on loan at Stockport County and Coventry City.