'To be totally honest...': Jermain Defoe opens up on reasons behind his shock Sunderland exit and retirement

Jermain Defoe has opened up on his surprise retirement during Sunderland's promotion campaign from League One, suggesting that the move did not pan out as initially promised.

Defoe had made an emotional return to the club on deadline day of the January window, shortly after Lee Johnson's departure. He made seven appearances for the club but only two starts, and made the decision to call time on his career during the March international break.

Speaking on the BBC's Defoe & Deeney Football Firsts podcast, Defoe said that his return played out very differently to what he had expected, and that a series of niggling injuries eventually took their toll.

"I remember the day that I decided to retire," he said.

"I left Rangers and went back to Sunderland, it was almost like a last dance kind of thing. "All the stuff I'd done [there], the relationship I had with the fans and with Bradley. They didn't have a manager when I went there because Lee Johnson had gone, and Alex Neil came in. I was in the building and some of the lads were saying, 'JD go for the job!' In my mind, I still wanted to try and help the boys get promoted to the Championship and that was my full focus. I wanted to help the group and the younger players but I hadn't played for two or three months.

"Stevie [Gerrard] went and Giovanni van Bronckhorst came in, I had a meeting with him and he wanted to know about the player-coach role I had. He wanted to know if I wanted to coach or play, and I wanted to play. So I went to Sunderland and Alex Neil came in and to be totally honest, what I was promised just never happened. I think the manager probably just went against everything the people upstairs had been telling me. I remember training and the boys had played on the Saturday, we came in on the Monday for a little game, 5-v-5, and it was sort of on my mind anyway because of the way my body was feeling. When you're not in the team and you're just training, you train harder than when you're in the team. Mentally it was tough for me, I picked up a hamstring [injury] and I was getting frustrated with all the niggles and stuff, my achilles. I was restricted anyway and then just thinking, I dunno if I can do this. There were a few other young forwards in the building and I'm thinking that if I feel like this, I'm blocking the way because of my name. I thought, this ain't right. I went in after training, phoned my mom and said 'that's me done'. A lot of fans were frustrated with me at the time."

Sunderland went on to win promotion in the play-off final against Wycombe Wanderers at Wembley at the end of the campaign.