May 7 (Reuters) - Borussia Dortmund defender Niklas Suele will retire at the end of the season, the 30-year-old said on Thursday.
Suele, capped 49 times by Germany, began his career at TSG Hoffenheim before joining Bayern Munich in 2017, where he won five league titles as well as the Champions League in 2020. He moved to Dortmund in 2022.
In an appearance on the Spielmacher podcast on Thursday, Suele said he made the decision to hang up his boots after injuring his knee during a match against Hoffenheim last month.
“When I went for an MRI the next day and received the good news (that it wasn’t a cruciate ligament tear after all), it was 1,000% clear to me that it was over," Suele said.
"I couldn’t imagine anything worse than looking forward to life – being independent, going on holiday, spending time with my children – only to then have to come to terms with my third cruciate ligament tear."
Dortmund, second in the standings, host Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday before finishing their league campaign with a trip to Werder Bremen on May 16.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
