Sheffield United player reveals injury is set to force him to retire

The Sheffield United winger, whose last made an appearance for Chris Wilder’s side 25 months ago, revealed a persistent back problem has left him concerned about his health in future years.

Despite undergoing an operation to rectify the matter, Holmes revealed it has now returned; with the coronavirus pandemic forcing him to put further treatment on hold.

“At the age of 22, I made it later into the Football League,” Homes said. “I’m 32 now, so that’s 10 years of graft with my back - and it has finally got the better of me.

“I have been back at Sheffied for 15 months and had an operation to shave down the bulging disks in my back which worked. I felt great and was back, then the same thing happened on my right hand side. I was due to have CT scan last month but obviously couldn’t have it because everything has shut down.

“I might need an operation, but I’m reluctant. I am 33 in the summer and I’m thinking ‘Do I have another operation to pay two or three more years?’

“Probably not, but I’m still in pain from day to day, so I need to get something sorted.

“Retirement in the summer looks imminent really. I think it’s inevitable just for my health.”

Explaining that fatherhood has also had a bearing upon his decision, Holmes added: “We’ve recently had a baby and you don’t want to get to 40 and not be able to play in the park with them do you.

“At the end of the day, it is just a game, albeit we’re in love with it. I want to retire on my own terms, it has been one hell of an injury.”

Holmes joined United from Charlton Athletic in January 2018, before completing loan spells with Oxford and Gillingham.

Attributing his injury to the years he spent working on a building site before turning professional, he told the Portsmouth News: “I was on a building site in Horsham, we were ripping out a boarding school, and one day I lifted a wheelbarrow and felt I’d been shot in the lower back. I’ve struggled with it ever since.”

Holmes, who once told The Star how he used to pay to play football for clubs in his native Essex, spent two years at Fratton Park earlier in his career before first meeting Wilder at Northampton Town.

"When I moved to Northampton from Pompey, I found a treatment called prolotherapy," Holmes said. "It is a course of injections to strengthen my ligaments around the area of the back and was a dream, the best thing that I ever got.

"However, it has worn off over the years, so I got it again when I was on loan at Oxford and unfortunately it has never been the same again."