Battered.

Sam Warburton’s sudden decision to retire from rugby at just 29-years-old last September came as a surprise to most people.

The former Wales and Lions captain had been battling hard to recover sufficiently from neck and knee surgeries, with his last ever game coming as captain of the British & Irish Lions against New Zealand in the final Test in Eden Park. Not a bad way to go out in fairness

But his decision to retire wasn’t taken lightly. Warburton was 100% focused and believed he was coming back, but he came home one day and realised his body just couldn’t get back to the level he wanted it at.

And when you take a look at his long list of injuries – it’s easy to see why. He’s had operations to reconstruct both shoulders, cartilage repair on one knee and ligament repair on the other. He’s even had an operation on his neck.

There’s only so many surgeries and rehabilitations one body can go through.