Suzanne Winters says career-ending knee injury was 'devastating'

Suzanne Winters made 104 appearances for Scotland, scoring 13 international goals

Former Scotland international Suzanne Winters says being forced to retire through injury was "devastating".

The 33-year-old suffered a career-ending gash to her knee playing for Motherwell Ladies last month

"It's going to hit me hard," Winters told BBC Scotland.

"I wanted to see the season out and decide what I was going to do. But some people have injuries really young and can't continue, so I have to be grateful that I've had a good career."

Winters was planning to make a decision about continuing in the game at the end of the season, but had to accept that she could no longer keep playing.

During spells at Glasgow City, Hibernian, Arsenal and Celtic, Winters won nine major honours, including domestic trebles with Hibs and Arsenal.

She dropped down into the second division to play for Motherwell in 2015, as the demands of training five nights a week with Celtic became too difficult to juggle with raising her three-year-old son, Oscar, with husband and former Dundee United and Hamilton striker David Winters.

Suzanne Winters scored on her Arsenal debut, and scored the goal that secured the 2008/09 Premier League title

The injury, sustained in a 4-3 defeat to Hearts at Ravenscraig, left Winters with a decision to make that she already knew was approaching.

"It was a slide tackle. There were no players near me, it wasn't like it was an impact tackle, and something on the astro slit my knee right open and missed the major tendon in my league by a centimetre, so it could have been a lot worse," Winters said.

"It split my muscle and fatty tissue. I looked at my knee and there was a massive hole. At the time, I was just worried about my son seeing me in that condition, it was our last home game of the season so my family were there. It was disappointing to end my career with an injury like that.

"I wasn't 100% sure what my plans were, I just knew at the end of the season I had to re-evaluate whether I wanted to play or not, but sustaining an injury like that made my decision for me.

"Having a three-year-old son, my priority is him and an injury like that restricted me looking after him. I'm a beauty therapist as well, and I had to cancel clients which is hard on you financially. My priority is my family and paying my mortgage, so unfortunately football comes second so I have to call it a day.

"Having a family, it's hard to socialise, so it was my time to be me, when I'm training with the girls, not a mum at home."

Suzanne Winters spent six years at Celtic, and won the Scottish Women's Premier League Cup in 2010

Having made her debut in 2004 for Glasgow City, Winters has seen the development of the women's game in Scotland at close hand.

She feels progress has been made, but that there is still ground to catch up on England, where some players are now full-time professionals.

"It's come a long way, but there's still a lot to be done," she said.

"When you compare the standard with England, these players are on pro contracts, however Scottish football has come a long way and the young ones coming through the system, it's exciting seeing what they're going to have.

"You can see it's getting bigger and better all the time, we're getting more backing. So it's going in the right direction, it's just not there yet. I would love the girls to get pro contracts, so they're not having to juggle everything. Why can't women get paid to play football full-time?"