Former NRL title-winning hooker Slade Griffin has been forced to retire at the age of 28 because of incessant injury problems.
Griffin, who was part of Melbourne’s 2017 grand final triumph, said he was “shattered” to call time on a career severely hampered by four knee reconstructions.
His last game was 18 months ago for the Newcastle Knights and without a contract for 2020 he announced in a social media post that the time had arrived to switch focus.
“I’m shattered the curtain has come down on what could have been. But I’m very grateful for what I was able to achieve,” he said.
“I’ll be forever in debt to the game and people of rugby league. It threw some curve balls at me but I accomplished things I thought were only possible in dreams.”
Griffin played 25 games across five seasons at the Storm, primarily as a backup to Cameron Smith, and enjoyed a run of 16 successive starts for the Knights in 2018 before suffering another serious injury.
He made his New Zealand Test debut a week before his final game, in the loss to England in Denver.