Leicester City announce Wes Morgan’s retirement

The writing has been on the wall for a little while, as Leicester City captain Wes Morgan was clearly moving into the twilight of his career. The big man’s playing time has dwindled to almost nothing, as the 37 year old has struggled for fitness.

It can be no real surprise then that the Foxes have announced today that he will be retiring at the end of the current season.

Wes has shown throughout his Leicester City career that he has a great deal to offer away from the pitch. I’m excited to see how we can help him shape his career after football and how the Club can continue to benefit from his experience, knowledge and passion for the game - chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha spoke to lcfc.com

It’s hard to imagine a greater Leicester City legend, even for a man who played for Nottingham Forest until he was 28.

In something of a hallmark for Foxes stars in recent years, he truly had to earn his place in professional football after being released as a teenager. He then suffered through over 350 appearances for Forest before finally getting his chance with Leicester.

He’s hardly looked back since, lifting the Championship, Premier League and FA Cup, as club captain throughout the most successful period in the team’s history.

While his captaincy and off-field impact have been felt more in the past couple of seasons, it would be a large oversight to ignore his on pitch performance too, which culminated in his selection in the 2015/16 PFA Premier League Team of the Year.

His retirement won’t make any change to management’s plans for the squad next year, but it will certainly be felt by the fans, who Morgan has served dutifully for nearly a decade.

Ever the dutiful teammate, Morgan won’t be alone there. The Foxes have also announced that the end of this season will see the end of Matty James’ 9 year tenure here, as well as Christian Fuchs’ 6 years.

Fuchs leaves as arguably the best free signing in Premier League history. The Austrian joined a team, who had barely stayed up and was a huge part in fixing a leaky defence for a team that went on to win the league on the back of a run of 1-0 wins that very season.

James’ career sadly will be remembered by most for the injuries that held him back, but he was nonetheless a high quality player, who put in over 100 appearances for the Foxes, and was instrumental in our promotion to the Premier League.

At just 29, the midfielder is the one of the three who still has time to build on his career from here and has been putting on a show on loan in the Championship this year. If he can stay healthy, he’ll be back in the Premier League one day.