Former Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County, Leeds United and Portsmouth man announces retirement

Luke Varney, who played 43 matches for the Owls across three temporary spells across two years, has hung up his boots having played for a host of other big clubs including Leeds United, Portsmouth, Derby County, Blackburn Rovers and Ipswich Town.

Early on in his time with Wednesday he hit a chord with supporters by scoring twice in a 2-0 win over Southampton.

Varney had hinted in the last of that trilogy of Owls loan stints, in 2010, that he wanted to join the club on a permanent basis. Final day relegation to League One saw Wednesday cut back on their budget however and he moved back to Derby before enjoying a season-long loan with Blackpool.

The versatile journeyman attacker finished his professional career at Burton Albion and had spent time in non-league football with his hometown club Quorn FC before announcing his retirement earlier this week.

He scored 100 goals over 500 appearances in professional football.

And in an interview he revealed his next steps to get back into the game as a fitness coach.

“I'm doing a personal trainer course,” he told BBC Derby. “It's something I first looked into at the back end of my Burton days, when I did a bit with the lads.

“I'm hopefully going to do that on a personal level and I've converted my garage into a gym.

“The demand's out there. So many mums and dads want their sons and daughters to be footballers. I just hope I can get some of my wisdom across.”