Former Gillingham defender Simon King has paid tribute to the club’s fans after being forced to retire through injury.

The 30 year old decided a couple of months ago to call time on his football career after two serious ankle injuries left him in so much pain, playing games was becoming unbearable.

King joined Inverness Caledonian Thistle last summer after his release from The Gills, but within a month of joining, the defender began to experience problems and after months of soul searching he decided it was time to hang up his boots.

Few players gain legendary status at their football club, but within just five years of being at Gillingham King managed that.

Now looking to pursue a career as a personal trainer, King has spoken exclusively to KSN and wanted to explain the reasons behind having to retire:

“I’ve had time to get my head around it as I made the decision a few months ago. Making the decision was horrible as football is something I have done all of my life and I don’t know any different.”

“To actually stop and be forced to retire through injury was even harder to take as I felt I could have had a few more years.”

“I knew my left ankle was damaged, but I was hoping for a fresh start at Inverness, but it wasn’t to be, it’s gutting and it’s been really hard to take.”

With the thoughts of retiring now behind him, King has spent the past few months deciding what he wants to do with the rest of his life and on Monday he started training to be a personal trainer.

Having had so much experience recovering from injury and improving his own fitness, King feels he will be well suited to his new profession:

“When I came back home from Scotland, I spent a few months deciding what I wanted to do with my life. Inverness were great with me and really supported me.”

“I had a lot of chats with the Chairman and Terry Butcher as he’d had similar problems to me. They were good as gold and helped me make the tough decision to retire.”

“I felt a bit lost at first after having had a few months off and it was hard at first to take it all in, but I’ve got good friends and family around me and they’ve kept me going.”

“It was a bit scary at first as all I have known is training with the boys, that’s all I have known since I left school, so I thought about what I’d be good at and came up with personal training.”

“I think the fact I have been a pro for the past ten years will help attract clients and they will want to work with me. For the last few years I have been battling with injuries and have worked with a lot of sports coaches and sports conditioning coaches.”

“I have picked up a lot of techniques over the years and have had to learn all about keeping fit, so thought it would be to get all of my qualifications and get on with a new job.”

King has announced his own retirement in the week that football loses the likes of David Beckham, Michael Owen, Paul Scholes and Jamie Carragher and the defender told KSN how he was leaving the game with good company:

“I felt a bit silly announcing my retirement at the same time as all of these greats from the game. There was just little old me making my announcement!”

“For me it was all about closure as a lot of people thought I was still at Inverness. As soon as I announced it I had some great comments on Twitter and I want to say thanks to everyone for that.”

“I am genuinely touched by all the comments and it’s people like that, that have kept me going whilst I have had all of my injuries.”

Now he has retired, King has spent some time looking back on his football career and believes the highlight will always be helping Gillingham to promotion at Wembley in 2009:

“It’s always a boyhood dream playing at Wembley, it was a brilliant day and one that I will never forget. To top it off getting man of the match has given me some really special memories.”

“Getting promotion with Gillingham and winning the Conference with Barnet are two of my greatest achievements.”

“They are the kind of things I will look back at and be proud of and there were individual games that I look back at fondly too.”

“Playing Aston Villa in the FA Cup at Priestfield was a great one for me as I grew up as a Villa fan and going to Old Trafford with Barnet was another.”

“I’ve also met some really nice people in the game and I will retire with a lot of great memories.”

“It was all going so great for me after that Wembley game and it’s scary to think how quickly it can all be taken away from you, but I have no regrets. I gave it my best all of the time and always gave it a go.”

“Unfortunately, I was doing a warm up and was in too much pain. It finally wore me down and that’s why I had to call it a day.”

Finally, King told KSN how he hopes to come back to Priestfield and watch a game soon as he holds the club and fans close to his heart:

“I hope I’m still welcome down there! They’ve had a great season and I still talk to some of the boys like Joe Martin and Charlie.”

“It’s a club very close to my heart and the fans have always been fantastic with me. I had some really great years there and I look forward to going there and watching a game of football.”

Everyone at KSN would like to wish Simon all the best for the future. Thanks for the memories Kingy!