Saints' record signing David Hirst has been forced to quit the game after failing in an 18-month battle against a crippling knee injury.

The former England striker, signed for £2 million from Sheffield Wednesday in October 1997, has been out since wrecking cruciate ligaments in a freak fall on a training run during the summer of 1998 when his foot caught in a pot hole.

Even then it was feared that might ultimately spell the end of an illustrious career but Hirst refused to accept defeat and battled back to make two substitute appearances towards the tail-end of last season.

However, he broke down again in pre-season and a succession of minor operations has failed to solve the problem forcing him reluctantly to hang up his boots one month past his 32nd birthday.

He said: "Obviously I am very disappointed. I have tried to get back but there is nothing I can do about it and now I have to move on.

"I have nothing planned at the moment because I have been waiting to get this sorted out."

There are fears too that Hirst could be followed into premature retirement by midfielder David Howells who has also been battling against a persistent knee injury for more than a year. However, that has yet to be confirmed.

Hirst's career, which brought three full caps and a mega-money bid from Manchester United, has been blighted by injury.

But he did not miss a game or even a training session when he first signed for Saints scoring nine vital goals in 28 matches to lift the side to 12th in the Premiership.

He has twice sat out a year with bad ankle injuries but was unable to recover from this problem earning sympathy from manager Dave Jones, whose own career was brought to a premature end by a knee injury.

He said: "It is unfortunate that he is going to have to finish, particularly when you think of what he did for us in his first season.

"I know what he is going through because you cling to hope and try everything until the day the specialist says it is not going to work and that is when it really hits home."

l Saints are giving a trial to Norwegian defender Alexander Aas from Odd Grenland who finished seventh in the top flight last season.

The Under-21 international can play right-back or central midfield and is likely to have a run-out in tomorrow's reserve game at Crystal Palace along with compatriot Terje Skjeldestad, a goalkeeper from Sogndal.

Claus Lundekvam's fifth booking of the season on Saturday means he will be suspended for the home game against West Ham on February 5 which is now a sell-out.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.