Mentally and physically shot, Port Adelaide forward Brett Ebert has conceded defeat in his injury battles and quit the AFL.

The 29-year-old Ebert was unable to play an AFL game this year after initially tearing a calf muscle in January.

Since then, his woes read like an injury list for an entire club: a strained hamstring – three times; a torn glute muscle; a torn adductor muscle; a strained abdomen. And he finishes with a chronic case of the groin ailment osteitis pubis.

“Mentally I’m probably a little bit shot,” Ebert told reporters on Wednesday.

“But I have learnt from it. I have grown as a person. Little setbacks, you realise, aren’t that big compared to what some other people are going through.

“I’m happy I had 10 years where I missed less than 10 games, so I have got to be thankful for that. Obviously it’s disappointing finishing like this, but it had to be.”

Ebert played 166 AFL games since being South Australia’s most famous father-son draft selection in 2002 – he’s the son of Port legend Russell Ebert, a four-time winner of SA’s coveted Magarey Medal and arguably the greatest player the state has produced.

Brett Ebert also won the 2003 Magarey Medal, awarded to the best and fairest player in the SANFL, but despite his decorated Dad and household surname, was never consumed by the sport.

He hated the time-consuming meetings. He shunned footy talk. And he only watched one game a week – Port’s.

“I’m not a real footy person,” he said.

“The best fun I have had in footy was coaching the under-13 (Port) Magpies this year.

“It is mainly the meetings – I love training, I love playing – it’s all the stuff that goes on outside of footy.

“You’re in this little bubble for the whole time.”

But Ebert enjoyed the camaraderie of a football club.

“The younger guys grow older and the older guys grow younger so it’s a great balance – and there is probably no other workplace in the world like that.”

Now, the member of Port’s losing 2007 grand final side turns his attention to a nearly-completed sports science degree.

“It has taken me 12 years to finish it, so I’d better use it,” he said.