Castleford Tigers winger Kirk Dixon has been forced to retire from rugby league at the age of 30 due to a neck injury.
The Englishman, who spent two years at Hull KC before joining the Tigers in 2007, underwent surgery in the off-season to rectify the issue, although it will take at least six months to recover.
Dixon already had plans to call time on his career at the end of the next campaign, with this setback hastening his agonising decision.
"I've had surgery to remove a disk and I've had an artificial disk put in there, and it was going to be at least a six months no-contact rehab period," he told Castleford's official website.
"That would have taken up most of this season and prior to the surgery, I already had an idea that I might retire at the end of the 2015 season. But it has come to an end now and you simply cannot put a price on your health. It's certainly not the way I wanted to go out."
Dixon made a total of 158 appearances in Super League, scoring 70 tries across a 10-year career.
