The 'hit like a ton of bricks' reason why Stuart Hogg is retiring

Stuart Hogg has explained the moment in 2021 when he first thought of retiring as a player. The 30-year-old Scotland full-back recently shocked the rugby world when revealing that he will quit playing following the upcoming World Cup in France. The three-tour British and Irish Lions pick said at the time of last month’s announcement that his body was letting him down and it was time to hang up his boots.

Hogg has now given his first major interview since that news broke in late March and he explained on the latest RugbyPass Offload the thinking behind his decision to quit this year rather than battle on further into his 30s.

Asked about the retirement call that seemingly came out of nowhere, the soon-to-be 31-year-old Hogg explained: “I had been thinking of it for a while. You look at the disappointment of the 2017 Lions tour, picking up all the injuries and then starting to get all the hate [he spoke earlier in the interview about online abuse].

"It took me a while to get over the disappointment of that tour, so for the for the couple of years ahead of the 2021 Lions tour I said, ‘Right, this is my time. I'm going to go all out to make sure I get on this tour’.

“I was chuffed to bits, over the moon to be in a position to go on a third tour. I didn’t see myself as a proper Lion until I get a Test match and if I didn’t get a Test match, to this day I still wouldn’t believe I am a proper Lion.

"So I targeted that from an individual point of view, that I am going to do everything I possibly can to get there. And I loved it, I absolutely loved it, but the only thing looking back is we played a Lions tour in South Africa with nobody in the stands.

“Since then, I have really, really struggled with my body. I had done everything to get there. I have got patellar tendinitis in both knees, worse in the right than in the left.

"I remember speaking to older boys who said you get to a certain point in your career – and it just hits you. Bang. It just hits you. I was like, 'It will never happen to me. Never happen to me'. In 2021 after the Six Nations, that time came. It just hit me like a ton of bricks.

“I was like, 'Holy shit, what has happened here?' It was just game on game I was trying to do everything I possibly could to build up to play. Went on the Lions tour, had an extended time off, didn't do any pre-season training or anything like that, I wanted to mentally switch off and recharge. Came back in, did a couple of weeks of training, straight back into playing – and I played a lot of rugby that season – and then the body just started to break down.

“I worked closely with Steve Haw, our physio at the club, and he has been absolutely outstanding. I was spending hours on the physio bed every day to get right and I have just got to the point where having a young family, it breaks my heart when my son comes up to me and says, 'Dad, do you want to go and play football in the garden after training?'

"But I'm absolutely knackered, I'm in too much pain that I can’t go outside. I’m like, 'Enough is enough, family is my priority and rugby has started to become a job'.

“I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I used to because of the way my body was feeling. I got to the point where I spoke to my parents about it and then losing the Scotland captaincy, I felt the time had come for a change.

“Whether the change would be not being Scotland captain, because it is a high-pressure environment, you take a lot on yourself which I loved doing, and I thought the change might be not being the Scotland captain. But in that autumn Tests, I felt like I was doing the exact same job as I was doing when I was captain. I was like the change really isn’t here.

“I sat down at length with Gill, with my parents, with Rob (Baxter) at the club, with Gregor (Townsend) and just said I believe now is my time to pull away. Ever since making a decision, I have felt like a completely different person. I feel at ease, I feel like there has been a monkey lifted off my back and I am now in a position where I am doing everything I can to make sure I am fit and well to play.

“I am going to have the most enjoyable time I have ever had on a rugby field because I know that it could end in a few weeks’ time or it could end after the World Cup, so I am going to do everything I can to get to the World Cup.

"I'm genuinely excited about life after rugby and moving back to Scotland and being around my family. I have been away for 14 years now from home so time to get the English accents knocked out of the kids, I reckon,” he chuckled.