By Shaun Connolly/Beat Sport.
Dan Leavy has today announced his retirement from rugby with immediate effect.
The 27-year-old Leinster and Ireland back row was advised to retire on medical grounds following a three-year battle to overcome the injury sustained in a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Ulster in March 2019.
Leavy made 79 appearances for Leinster and helped the Blues to win their fourth European Champions Cup in 2018.
He was also capped 11 times for Ireland and made his last appearance in a win over Argentina in November 2018. Memorably, Leavy was part of the famous Grand Slam winning team in 2018.
Speaking to leinsterrugby.ie, Leavy said, “I have done everything I can do to come back from the knee injury I suffered in 2019, but unfortunately, I can’t do any more, or ask any more of my body.
“I’d like to thank Andy Williams, my surgeon, and Karl Denvir, my physio in Leinster, for all that they have done for me in the years since then. I can take solace from the fact that I tried everything over the last three years.”
Leinster head coach, Leo Cullen, said: “Dan was a player earmarked from an early age as a special talent and I think everyone could see that, particularly in those few years in and around 2017, ’18 and ’19, just how dynamic and destructive a player he could be with Leinster and with Ireland, where he went on to achieve unprecedented success at that time”
The announcement will disappoint many, with Leavy previously earmarked as a player to lead the future generation of Irish talent. Leavy can go out with his head held high, secure in the knowledge that he never lost a game during his 11 caps for Country.
