Veteran Collingwood premiership defender Ben Johnson won't play again for the AFL club he has supported all his life.
The 32-year-old, whose 235 games for the Magpies included their 2010 flag, has announced his immediate retirement.
Johnson, runner-up in the Magpies' best and fairest in 2004 and 2006, hasn't played an AFL game since round three and has given up on trying to work his way back, after being hampered by nagging injuries this season.
The latest is a calf complaint, for which the club's injury list had Johnson slated to be sidelined for another one or two weeks.
While it was an anti-climactic career end, Johnson said his passion for the Magpies never waned.
"We enjoyed some great times, played some great footy and I've met some amazing people, including some of my best mates," Johnson said.
"I just didn't have anything left really. It was time."
Coach Nathan Buckley, a former teammate who played alongside Johnson in Collingwood's 2002-03 grand final losses, said passion was his hallmark.
"He wore his heart on sleeve and bled black and white for the best part of 14 years," Buckley said.
"I think it's fair to say that he was a great teammate, a great person to have on your side in the trenches."
Magpies president Eddie McGuire said Johnson provided two of the more memorable highlights of the club's recent history.
"His tackle on Peter Burgoyne in the qualifying final of 2002 was a match-winning moment that ended Collingwood's long finals winning drought," McGuire said.
"And the goal he slotted in the 2010 grand final, you could tell it meant as much to him as it did to every Collingwood supporter."
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