Liam Cooper sends message to his ‘best pal’ Stuart Dallas after his retirement at Leeds United

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Liam Cooper has sent a message to Leeds United teammate Stuart Dallas after he announced his retirement from football earlier today.

Dallas has been out of action injured for almost two years now after fracturing his femur in a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City at Elland Road in April of 2022.

The 32-year-old has undergone a number of surgeries in order to get himself back fit but unfortunately it has proved to be too difficult, and as such, he has hung up his boots.

Speaking while away with Northern Ireland last month, Dallas had still harnessed faint hopes of getting back onto the pitch and so clearly this is a decision he has not taken lightly.

In his nine years at Leeds, Dallas has firmly established himself as a club legend thanks to his performances in the promotion campaign under Marcelo Bielsa. All in all, he made 266 appearances for Leeds.

Cooper sends message to his ‘best pal’ Dallas after his retirement at Leeds

Dallas made his announcement on retirement across his social media platforms earlier this afternoon and reserved a special thank you for Cooper, as well as Bielsa and Michael O’Neill. Tributes have already been pouring in.

Cooper is now into his 10th and likely final season at Leeds and so has been at the club for the entirety of the time since Dallas originally made the move from Brentford.

In his retirement message, Dallas spoke of Cooper as an ‘incredible captain, teammate and friend whose talent and contribution to the the team often goes unrecognised’. Most of all, though, he says he is a ‘wonderful human’.

And now writing on Twitter, Cooper has become the latest of a long line of Dallas’ former teammates to pay tribute to him and his career, hailing him as his ‘best pal’ after what they have achieved at Leeds together.

He wrote: “My best pal! Thank you. What a player but what an even better person. Life can be seriously cruel at times. Just know the same fight you had to get back fit is the same fight that will make you successful in whatever is next. We Love ya pal and will always be here for ya. LEGEND!”

Dallas retirement a sad day for Leeds United

This news will have undoubtedly left many Leeds fans feeling sad as an injury such as this one is such an unfortunate way to have to end his career.

If his performances on the pitch are anything to go by, Dallas will have been giving absolutely everything behind-the-scenes in order to get himself back fully fit.

Unfortunately, it just was not to be, though, and from a personal perspective it is the right decision in order to avoid any complications in the future which could’ve come with getting back playing.

Dallas is likely to be in for an incredible reception against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday and hopefully Leeds are able to get promotion over the line so he can properly celebrate.