There is a sense of sadness in Bilbao and across Spain this week following Athletic Club striker Aritz Aduriz’s announcement that he’s hanging up his boots. The 39-year-old had already declared his intention to retire at the end of the 2019/20 season, but with the season – and the all-Basque Copa del Rey final – currently on hold, his body, it seems, has told him it cannot
wait.
“Unfortunately, my body has said ‘enough’,” Aduriz wrote in a message posted on social media on Wednesday afternoon. “The time has come,” he added, before explaining that doctors had advised him to undergo hip replacement surgery.