THEO Walcott has detailed why he has made the "scary" decision to retire from professional football.

The 34 year old announced that he was drawn an end to his playing career, which has spanned 18 seasons, on Friday morning.

Having made his debut for Saints in 2005 aged 16, Walcott went on to make 564 club appearances for Southampton, Arsenal and Everton.

The Saints academy graduate also earned 47 England caps and scored eight times for his country.

His most recent season saw him score twice in 20 league games as Southampton unsuccessfully avoided relegation from the Premier League.

Speaking on Sky Bet's The Overlap, the former Saints forward explained his decision to end his playing career.

He said: "I'm officially going to be hanging up my boots. It's very scary, I can't lie.

"It's scary because football's all I've known from the age of 16 or even younger. I want to try new things I never experienced as a kid - I missed out on a lot.

"I just feel like I want to experience life - things (usually) revolve around football for me."

Walcott said he had received offers from clubs in Saudi Arabia, but didn't feel that was the correct next step for his career.

"There has been some Saudi offers, but I just don't feel like that is somewhere where I want to see myself playing," he continued. 

"(I've got) nothing against the money or the league - I just feel like, right now, if my heart is not into football it's not fair on the clubs or on me.

Daily Echo:

"I'm not going to earn myself a contract where I'm not going to be putting 100 per cent into it.

"It's not that I've fallen out of love with the game. It's (that) my heart isn't going to be fully committed to playing the game.

"I kind of like the fact I stopped at Southampton. I started there and I've stopped there.

"It sits nicely with me. My last ever goal was against Arsenal - for me, that's a nice moment and I'm proud of that."

Asked whether he is worried about the potential after-effects of retirement, Walcott replied: "The thing that's helped me massively, and I think should help a lot of players, is therapy.

"I've been speaking to therapists for many years and still do now today.

"I think it's important in any sort of work that you do to have a different perspective from someone else to talk to about anything.

"If you can find someone in that role that can help you, you'll be in your best frame of mind to look after other people."