Dean Lewington: Veteran defender admits retirement is ‘a bit scary’

Dean Lewington once admitted to being a bit of a footballing dinosaur.

“As you get older, especially the way modern football is going, over 30s are seen as prehistoric really,” he said in the autumn of 2022 as he approached the 900th match of his career.

Now just over a month away from his 41st birthday, time has finally caught up with the MK Dons defender, who will retire from playing at the end of the season.

Only Peter Shilton, Tony Ford, Graham Alexander and Terry Paine have played more senior games in English football than Lewington.

“It feels quite surreal. Beforehand ‘retiring’ is just a word, it sounds OK and then it dawned on me that I won’t get to play football [any more], which is a little bit scary now that it’s come to it,” he told BBC Look East.

“It’s been on my mind for maybe two years now and it’s just the right time.

“I was in a Sunday league team at six, in an academy at eight, and I’m now about to turn 41, so three quarters of my life has been playing football.

“My whole life will change and that part is unfortunately coming to an end.”