Niklas Süle has announced he will retire from professional football at the end of the current season, drawing a sudden close to a career that once marked him as one of Germany’s most imposing defenders.

The Borussia Dortmund centre back, capped 49 times by Germany, made his decision after suffering a knee injury in a Bundesliga match against Hoffenheim. The incident immediately raised fears of a third anterior cruciate ligament rupture, a prospect that shook the defender to his core given his previous battles with serious knee problems.

Speaking on the Spielmacher podcast, Süle described the moment doctors first examined the injury. Convinced he had torn his ACL again, he said he left the room, stepped into the shower and cried for 10 minutes, believing his worst fears had been realised. The emotional shock, he explained, forced him to confront how much more his body and mind could endure.

Subsequent scans brought unexpectedly good news: the ligament was intact. Yet by then, Süle said, his mind was made up. The scare had crystallised a feeling that had been growing quietly in the background – that another long rehabilitation, another year defined by pain, doubt and repetition, was a road he no longer wished to travel.

He spoke candidly about imagining life beyond football, picturing time with his children, the freedom to travel, and the relief of no longer living under the constant threat of another devastating injury. When the MRI cleared him of an ACL tear, he said, it only confirmed that he wanted to step away on his own terms rather than wait for his body to make the final decision for him.

Süle will see out his contract with Borussia Dortmund before officially retiring. His honours list is substantial: five Bundesliga titles and a UEFA Champions League crown with Bayern Munich, along with the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup with Germany. He featured at two World Cups and, at his peak, was regarded as a cornerstone of both club and country’s defensive future.

Instead, his story becomes one of talent repeatedly interrupted by injury and of a player choosing personal wellbeing and family over the relentless demands of elite sport, leaving the game earlier than many expected but very much on his own terms.