AS CITY were taking a pasting at Blackpool, nobody would have blamed Stephen Warnock for calling it quits.

The veteran defender joked that the painful 5-0 loss at Bloomfield Road convinced him that retirement was the best option.

But Warnock had already made up his mind by then.

Today, he will tie up his laces for his 540th and final professional appearance.

A career that has taken in his beloved Anfield, a World Cup with England, European football and the Premier League will bring down the curtain at Scunthorpe’s Glanford Park.

He will end where he began – in a Bradford City shirt – no doubt delivering another whole-hearted performance that has typified those 16 years.

Don’t expect any half-measures from Warnock’s final bow.

“It was a very tough decision to make,” he said. “Though maybe the Blackpool defeat made it that bit easier.

“I could have retired on the pitch, there and then, that day.

“No, seriously, it is tough because you always think, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’

"Personally, I think it is the right decision. While I am still enjoying it and things are going well – the Blackpool game, apart – then that is a good time to bow out.”

There wasn’t a clear signal that told Warnock this was the right time to retire. He just wanted to go out on his terms still playing at a personal level that suggests there could have been at least another year still in the tank.

The 36-year-old admitted: “I couldn’t tell you how it came about, to be honest. How long I could carry on had been at the back of my mind for a few years, to be honest.

“The thing I didn’t want to do was carry on next year and get to the point where age catches up and I am in and out of the team.

“Right now, I am in the team and enjoying my football. I want that to be how I remember my final few weeks. That is why it is the right time to go.

“Don’t get me wrong, there have been times when I thought, ‘I can carry on’. But while your legs haven’t gone and you can still get up and down, enjoying the game, then I believe that is the right thing to do.

“I have often heard former players say they knew the right time to retire. Sometimes, others say they left it too late and I didn’t want to be that player.

“I don’t want to be heavy legged and my body not letting me do what I want it to do. That would not be good.”

Warnock’s commitment has never been in question for the 10 clubs he has played for. Having broken a leg three times when starting out, he has made sure of draining every drop from his career.

“I have been very lucky. I grew up standing on the Kop so to play in front of those fans for Liverpool was great. So was scoring in front of them.

“To play for England was incredible. And to represent my country at a World Cup, well that was beyond any dream that I could have ever had.

“I look at things like that as my highlights. But when I started out, I had three leg breaks so just having a career has been special.

“To play any games at all was great for myself. As I was laying there in the hospital bed, I didn’t believe I would ever play a professional game.

“So to manage as many games as I have has been great. I have to thank the doctors for doing such a great job that day and I have been very fortunate.”

A thoughtful student of the game, Warnock wants to step up to management one day and has already passed his UEFA B licence coaching badge.

But he is also enjoying his media work and has become a frequent pundit for the BBC.

Although he appreciates the pitfalls that come with questioning fellow pros.

“It can be tough,” he said. “Without being disrespectful to my team-mates, but I am playing at a lower level and watching the elite players.

“I am commenting on them and they are probably thinking, ‘What does he know about it? He is in League One’.

“But it is an opinion and what I see. I do enjoy that side.

“It is strange that I begin and end at Bradford. To be honest, it is one of the reasons why I came here when Bradford asked about me.

“That thought about it possibly being the way to bow out was at the back of my mind. I felt it would be a nice way to hang up my boots.”