FORMER Middlesbrough midfielder Lee Tomlin has announced his retirement from playing after 17 years as a professional.

The 33-year-old, whose career began in 2005 with Rushden and Diamonds, spent 18 months on Teesside making 64 appearances and scoring 14 goals. His last game for the club was a 2-0 defeat to Norwich City in the Championship play-off final in 2015. 

Tomlin is currently at Doncaster Rovers which was the tenth club of his career but he admits that his body was telling him that he could no longer cope with the demands.

"In the last month, just waking up and taking the amount of painkillers I’ve had to take has got too much" he said. "I want to play football for as long as I possibly can but it’s just too much on my body every day and it’s grinding me down.

"You just have to be honest with yourself. I have days when I can’t pick my daughter up for more than two minutes because of my hip or my back. It’s not a way of living and not a way I want to live.

"If it was with any other club in the summer other than Doncaster, I’d have probably just called it a day then. There was a bond that I felt at the club and it was the reason I did want to sign. It meant a lot to me. I’m going to miss it.”