England and Lions winger Anthony Watson retires because of a back injury
England and Lions winger Anthony Watson retires because of a back injury
LONDON — England and Lions winger Anthony Watson retired from all rugby on Friday because of a back injury.
The 30-year-old played 56 tests for England and five for the British and Irish Lions but he was unable to overcome a back issue that surfaced in January 2024. His last game was for his Leicester club on Dec. 1 with painkillers.
Watson's surgeon recommended he stop playing.
“It was taken out of my hands and I'm quite grateful it was done that way,” Watson said. "It's hard to say I have dealt with it already because I haven't. What gives me peace of mind is knowing I did everything I could do, and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
“I have really enjoyed my career, played a long time, and I would have taken all the things I have achieved in my career and retired at 30 if you had told me this at 19.”
Watson won the Six Nations three times, and his career highlight was the 2016 Grand Slam, in which he scored three of his 23 career tries. Coming just months after England's abysmal exit in the pool stage of its home Rugby World Cup in 2015 made the Six Nations achievement more special.
He also started in the 2019 Rugby World Cup final defeat to South Africa, and won the junior world championship in 2013 and the Under-20 Six Nations in 2012 and 2013.
England coach Steve Borthwick paid tribute to Watson.
“I was fortunate to have coached Anthony both at Leicester Tigers and England. He is a humble, hard-working professional man who is universally liked and admired in the game,” Borthwick said. "He is to be congratulated on a fantastically successful career.”
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