CONOR Hourihane has confirmed his retirement from football, and become an assistant head coach for Barnsley.

The Irish international, who captained the Reds to promotion in 2016 before moving on to Aston Villa for whom he played in the Premier League, returned at the start of this season as a player/coach.

But he made just two appearances in August and has been focusing mainly on the coaching side of his role under Darrell Clarke, particularly working on attacking set pieces. He will now be assistant coach along with Martin Devaney.

Hourihane said: “I have mixed emotions. It’s very disappointing to stop playing and a little bit emotional thinking of the good memories. But I am very fortunate to have had the career I had and I have huge excitement for the future.

“I have been given a real exciting opportunity by the club and I can only thank Neerav (Parekh, chairman), Mladen (Sormaz, sporting director) and Darrell for trusting me. I want to make big strides and steps into the coaching world

"I know now is the time. I am hugely focused and hungry for the coaching journey. I have been for a few years, putting so many hours in.”

Sporting director Mladen Sormaz added: "We are delighted that Conor has agreed to take up this role permanently, it has clearly been on the cards for a number of weeks.

“We came to the decision based on two factors, the first was that Conor really impressed in his coaching duties over the summer and at the start of the season, the number of hourshewasputtinginwasmassive. Secondly,after the opening games ,he had felt that he wasn’t able to play to the level he demanded from himself and this coincided with Dean Whitehead’s departure- therefore it made perfect sense to give Conor more responsibility as a coach and call time on his playing career. The club and Darrell collaborated on the decision and collectively we are excited to see what else Conor can bring to the staff after a very positive start.”