Lucas Leiva, a former Liverpool player, has announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 36 due to a heart condition.
The issue was detected during testing with Gremio, his boyhood club in Brazil, for whom he had re-signed in the summer.
Leiva was originally signed by Liverpool from Gremio for £5m in 2007 and went on to make 346 appearances over the course of 10 seasons at Anfield.
Despite initially struggling to break into the Liverpool midfield, he became a regular starter after the departures of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano.
During his time at Liverpool, Leiva won a League Cup in 2012 and was an unused substitute in the 2016 Europa League final.
He also made 247 Premier League appearances for the club, the fourth-most by a Brazilian player in the competition’s history.
Leiva expressed his gratitude for the career he has had, but acknowledged that his health must come first.
In a tearful news conference, he stated that he was ending his career where he would like, but not in the way he would like.
Leiva signed for Lazio in 2017 for £5m and won the Coppa Italia with the Serie A club. He also earned 24 caps for the Brazilian national team.
