Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart announces retirement at end of season

Hart, who will be 37 when his contract expires in the summer, has made 690 appearances while representing 10 different clubs across his 21-year professional career, spending the last three seasons with Scottish giants Celtic for whom he has made 138 appearances to date, keeping 59 clean sheets.

Hart has won five major trophies with the Hoops and is hoping to end his final campaign in Glasgow on a high by lifting a third Scottish Premiership title and a second Scottish Cup.

The 75-cap England international, who was part of Three Lions squads in four consecutive major tournaments between 2010 and 2016, explained his decision to hang up his gloves during an interview with close friend and his mental performance coach Jamie Edwards for Celtic TV.

«As of June, I'm going to stop playing professional football,» said Hart. «This is something that I've thought about for a while. There's no right or wrong time but the way this club works that I'm playing at the moment there's so much on it.

»There's so much heart and soul poured into what we're doing as a football club, with the grand scheme of the club, the support base and the conversations that go on around it.

«There's obviously a conversation around the goalkeeping position for next season so I just thought it was important with the blessing of the club [and after] conversations with Brendan [Rodgers] and Stevie Woods (goalkeeper coach), that we get the message out. It takes one thing off the table that people will need to speculate over.»

«I feel great physically,» Hart added. «As good as I possibly can do for my age and what I've done to my body, involved in football