Spain’s oldest goalscorer and Athletic Bilbao striker Aritz Aduriz has disclosed his retirement as the 39-Year-Old gets set for a hip replacement surgery.

Thus, the striker will miss the anticipated all-Basque Copa Del Rey final between Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad.

Aduriz is retiring after he was advised to undergo a hip replacement surgery by a surgeon.

“Many times, I have said that football will leave you before you leave it. Yesterday, the doctors told me to go see the surgeon sooner rather than later, to get a prosthetic to replace my hip and try to go about my everyday life, as normally as possible. Unfortunately, my body has said ‘enough.’ I can’t help my team-mates the way I would like to, nor the way they deserve. That is the life of a professional athlete. Simple.” he posted on Twitter.

The suspension of the La Liga due to the coronavirus pandemic and has led to the postponement of the Copa Del Rey final till a further date.

Meanwhile, it meant that the forward has brought forward his retirement, which was supposed to be at the end of the 2019-20 La Liga season.

He became Spain’s oldest goalscorer for the national team in 2016 at the age of 35 years and 275 days, in the game between Spain and Macedonia, a 4-0 win for the European Giants in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifier match.

Aduriz is a legend at Bilbao, where he played for three different spells while he featured at Valencia, Real Mallorca, and Real Valladolid as well as Aurrera and Burgos.

Furthermore, he has 172 goals across all competitions for Athletic Bilbao. For Spain, he had 13 caps and 2 goals between 2010 and 2017. His only trophy remains the Spanish Supercup in 2015

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu