Sam Burgess’ NRL career is over with South Sydney expected to announced their captain’s injury-enforced retirement.

The 30-year-old England Test star has battled shoulder injuries throughout his career, culminating in an infection after another surgery this season.

His imminent exit with three years left to run on his multi-million dollar deal presents questions about the effect on South Sydney’s salary cap, given his retirement is based on medical grounds.

Burgess will go down as one of the NRL’s great forwards.

He has played 182 games for the club since arriving in 2010, and was the Clive Churchill Medallist in their drought-breaking 2014 grand final success.

Tough and rugged in the middle, he has been the leader of the Rabbitohs’ forward pack since his NRL debut in 2010.

He also played 88 games for Bradford in the English Super League, and represented England at the 2015 Rugby World Cup during a brief switch to the 15-man code.

His retirement will come just months after Greg Inglis had to call time on his career, and leaves brother Tom as the only remaining Burgess at Souths with George returning to Super League.