Former Huddersfield Town and Barnsley loanee turned Premier League champion officially announces retirement after failing to build on glory years

Although he came through Manchester United's academy, it was at Huddersfield Town where the midfielder got his break in professional football, making 38 appearances on loan in 2009-10, mainly as a starter, as the Terriers reached the League One play-offs.

From there he had loans at Cardiff City and Watford before 18 appearances at Barnsley in the first half of the 2011-12 season.

His Oakwell loan spell persuaded Leicester City's Nigel Pearson to sign him permanently from the Red Devils – for whom he never made a first-team appearance – in January 2012.

It was there he had the best years of his career, taking the Foxes into the Premier League and playing a key part in their improbable 2016-17 title win.

The Mancunian was man of the match on his England debut, a friendly against the Netherlands in 2016, and won two more caps that season but failed to make the cut from provisional to full squad for the summer's European Championship. He never played for his country after that.

A £5m move to Chelsea in 2017 could have been the making of him but was instead the death-knell of his career, making only one more Premier League start for the Blues than he had loan spells over his five-year contract.

Even at Burnley, Aston Villa and Turkish side Kasimpasa, appearances were scarce as he battled off-field problems and although he made 31 Championship starts for Reading in 2021-22, it proved to be the last professional football of his career.

"I'd just like to announce my retirement from professional football," he told the High Performance Podcast.

"It's probably been a long time coming, especially with the last year, but I think it's time to officially announce it now.

"I didn't think it would bother me but saying it then it's almost like scratching a nerve a bit."