Former Magpie Alfie Mawson forced to retire due to injury

Former Maidenhead United defender, Alfie Mawson, has retired from the game at the age of 29 due to a persistent knee injury.

Mawson, who went on to play for Swansea City in the Premier League and was called up to the England squad, played for the Magpies in three loan spells under form manager Johnson Hippolyte.

He made 12 appearances for the Magpies on loan between 2012-13 before being loaned out by parent club Brentford to Luton Town, Welling United and Wycombe Wanderers.

In his first spell with the Chairboys he helped them to the League 2 Play-off final. He then signed for Barnsley in 2015, scoring nine times in 45 appearances before his switch to Swansea. Mawson moved to Fulham in 2018 and featured regularly in the first half of their promotion-winning campaign. He also spent time on loan at Bristol City before returning to Adams Park in August. He's played 21 times for the Blues this season, making his final appearance in a win - with a clean sheet - against Ipswich Town in December.

“It might come as a shock to some people, but to me, it’s been coming for a while,” said Alfie, in an interview for the Wycombe Wanderers website. “After speaking to the specialists, to my family and to the gaffer, I’ve come to the difficult decision to retire. I had some time off around Christmas after feeling some pain in my knee and the pain hasn’t gone away. I went for a scan and unfortunately the damage was done.”

“It’s devastating, but it’s how life goes. I was nearly in this situation in the summer, and I’d fallen out of love with the game. I think if I’d retired then, I wouldn’t have wanted to even watch football again. But coming back here has made me fall back in love with it. It reminds me of when I was first here, being a kid and loving what I was doing. I’ve done what I wanted to achieve, and to go out with a win and a clean sheet in my last game was a nice way to end it.

"Coming back here has made me fall back in love with football. It reminds me of when I was first here, being a kid and loving what I was doing."

“I will always be a Wycombe fan. I don’t want to just to say goodbye and leave, because I owe this club so much and I will miss the boys. Words can’t do this club justice and what the staff have built here is incredible. I want to stay amongst the boys and be a shoulder to lean on and offer advice and knowledge.

“I knew this day was going to come – it’s just sooner than I had hoped. But there’s a lot worse things going on in the world and that makes you realise that at the end of the day, it’s a job. I’ve loved it and it’s been a hell of a journey. I’ve dedicated my life to it and I’ll be forever grateful to the people that helped make that possible.”