Worrying.

Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio reckons Joe Marler’s decision to retire from international duty less than 12 months before the Rugby World Cup in Japan is a worrying one.

The former Wasps flanker, turned pundit says he can sympathise with Marler, who has stepped away from England duty to spend more time with his family, but believes this is an early warning sign for the RFU and other unions.

Marler said he could no longer keep up with the relentless nature of representing his country.

“Being with England you have to spend an incredible amount of time away and I could not do that anymore.” Marler said yesterday.

Dallaglio reckons it might be time for more unions to follow New Zealand’s model of giving their players sabbaticals to prolong their international careers.

“I think the timing has caught everyone a little bit by surprise, because the natural time for him to retire would be in 12 months time – after the World Cup, and then say ‘look I’ve had enough’” Dallaglio said on BT Sport’s Rugby Tonight

“But you can understand, he said it’s relentless and he doesn’t feel like he can give 100%. I just feel sad that at 28 – he fells like he has to retire.”

“And I think maybe, that’s a little early warning sign to the RFU and other unions that actually maybe we should be doing something to make sure the players don’t make that decision, and they can give 100%.”

“In New Zealand – they tend to give them a sabbatical every now and again and it prolongs their career. Maybe it’s the start of something that we’ll start to see a little bit more often.”

Ugo Monye added that the best thing he’s done in his life is raise a family, and he can understand why Marler wants to step away and do exactly that. The former Harlequins winger say continuing to play for England at £25,000-a-game would have been the easy option, and Marler should be applauded for the way he has gone about his international retirement.

“Let’s face it the financial reward playing for England is great. A 25 large a game – the easy decision is to just carry on playing isn’t it? But he wants to do himself justice, he wants to do the badge justice and you’ve got to only but respect Joe Marler.”