His Test retirement caught many by surprise, but England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff says his injury-ravaged body had left him with little choice and he quit for the sake of his family.
"It just came to a point where I would come back from an injury and have a couple of weeks where everything was fine, then things would go downhill again," the 31-year-old, who will quit Tests after the ongoing Ashes, told the News of the World.
"I've done something like two years rehabilitation out of the last four and for my body, for my family's sake I have decided to call time on the Tests and concentrate on the shorter form of cricket," he said.
Flintoff said fast bowling had put extreme stress on his body, something he found very hard to deal with.