Christian Ribeiro remembers the phone call from the Oxford United physiotherapist as he navigated the snaking country lanes back towards the city. He describes the surreal moment, the rattle of his ringtone and the conversation during which Andrew Proctor relayed the message from the consultant that ended Ribeiro’s career at the age of 27. “Before he had even said it, I knew what he was going to say because the things he was listing off were serious, they were not little niggles, these were serious problems,” Ribeiro says of his knee injury. “When he came to the end, he said: ‘Chris you need to speak to your family – this is the end of you, really.’ I had already absorbed it. I said: ‘Yep, leave it with me, I know.’ I said to him: ‘Just be blunt.’ I didn’t want him to sugarcoat anything. It was boom, boom, boom, with all these things going on. It was a case of: ‘You need to consider retirement right now.’ I said: ‘OK, that’s it, I won’t play again.’ I gave him my decision there and then. The next week we cemented it.” For Ribeiro, the November team meeting before Oxford faced Plymouth Argyle came with a twist. He stood in the dressing room, in front of coaching staff and team-mates, to deliver the news he would never play again. “I thanked them all because my last year at Oxford was my most enjoyable in football. I was not expecting any of them to cry their eyes out. I thought beforehand I wasn’t going to get emotional because I was quite rational and calm but when you stand up in front of 30 people … I was getting a little bit bubbly by the end but I kept it all down.” Ribeiro is relaxed, his outlook positive. His journey here, via Scunthorpe United and Exeter City, is a sad tale for somebody with ability and quality. Born in Swansea he played for Wales as a teenager and counted Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey as team-mates. “I never reached their heights and I was always very sad about that. I couldn’t stay at that level, unfortunately.” Injuries blighted his career, including his first start for Bristol City, the club he joined aged 10, when he was forced off after 26 minutes with anterior cruciate ligament damage. Ribeiro was highly rated from a young age, recalls feeling “invincible” while playing in the Championship and turned down a move to the Premier League. He believes his body “probably never fully recovered” from that injury 10 years ago. “After that, I was still chasing the dream but I realised I wasn’t the same and that I was quietly losing something.” The beginning of the end, he says, arrived last September. After the perfect pre-season, he was playing regularly but he felt an innocuous clunk towards the end of training. In numbing pain, he limped through the final five minutes of the session – “basically hid” – knowing he was in line to start at right-back against Gillingham the following day. “I got into the warmup and I couldn’t move. It was downhill from then really; probably two months later I was being told I was retiring.” With the team on a decent run, Ribeiro battled on, playing another seven games, acutely aware something was wrong. “The pain was debilitating me, getting worse and worse with each match, to the point where in the last couple of games I have no idea how I was still playing,” he says. “By carrying on I was putting my long-term health at risk. I knew that because I was having to play on such strong painkillers all of the time. The pain I was in, struggling to go up and down the stairs, I honestly look back and think how I was playing was bonkers, really. It was crazy, I don’t know how I was getting through games. I was on my last life – it was very much: ‘This is it.’” Ribeiro played against MK Dons on Tuesday 7 November and the following Saturday he was in line to face Northampton Town. The day before the game he pulled up halfway through training and was sent for a MRI scan. “I had an inkling something was seriously wrong so it wasn’t a total shock but you never expect the final call to say you’re done. I was told: ‘You have to stop otherwise you won’t be walking in your 30s.’” As soon as he had finished speaking to the club physio he rang his partner Beccie, a physio at Cheltenham general hospital, and his parents, Anne and Mike. “Those were the only three I told on the Friday. To a point they were relieved because they could see how much pain I was in. It was obviously sad but they watched a couple of games with my knee all taped up, limping through. I wasn’t able to play my usual game and they could see that.” Ribeiro is keeping his options open as he works towards his Uefa B licence. Scouting and media work are also options, as is delving into financial planning or mortgage advising. “When you are in football, you’re looked after like a child; everything’s done for you and it’s great. When you’re out of it, it’s my responsibility to get on with things and it’s a whole different mindset. It’s a testing time, it’s a bit scary but I am enjoying it as well.” Technically, though, he remains a professional footballer, under contract until this summer. “All of my life, people say: ‘What do you do?’ And I say: ‘I play football’ but now it’s not true is it?” Ribeiro says, as his wry smile broadens. “I suppose now I am considered an ex-footballer and it is odd but I have come to terms with all of that and I’m getting over it. I’d like to think there is more to me than just football.” The Guardian Sport