Bath hooker Ross Batty to retire at end of season

Bath Rugby hooker Ross Batty has announced that he will retire from professional rugby at the end of the ongoing season.

The 34-year-old's decision comes after taking medical advice after he sustained a neck injury in December last year.

Batty started his rugby career with Newcastle Falcons in 2006 and also featured for Rotherham Titans before joining Bath ahead of the 2010/11 season. Since then he has gone on to rack over 170 appearances for the Recreation Ground based club including 115 Premiership games.

I’m totally at peace with retirement now,” Batty said in a statement released by the club.

“At the start, I was very blinkered to what I think would have been quite clear to other people. I thought I would get fixed and get back out there again, but sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees.

“The situation is such where I can’t really go again and it’s a time where I have to accept it and move on. It would be massively risky to go back out there again and seriously risk my health”

“I’m really looking forward to the future and what might come next for me.”

Bath are positioned ninth in the Gallagher Premiership table with eight wins from 20 games.