FORMER Saints Super League Grand Final winner Mark Flanagan has announced that he will retire from the game at the end of the season.

But he will hang up his boots satisfied with a career in which he played his part in winning one winners ring with Saints and then helping his unfancied Salford Red Devils reach Old Trafford last year.

Signed from Wests Tigers as a utility forward, Flanagan's pinnacle came when he was named in the halves for an injury ravaged Saints in the 2014 Grand Final.

With Saints' only recognised fit half back Lance Hohaia concussed in the opening minutes it was left to a combination of Flanagan, Paul Wellens and Jordan Turner to marshal the troops against a 12-man Wigan to lift the title.

Speaking on Sky Sports yesterday Flanagan said: "I have been speaking to the club and I have decided to call time on my career.

"I am 32 now and have a few niggling injuries.

"Although the heart wants to carry on, my head says it is time with the persistent injuries.

"It would be great to finish on a high and win some silverware with Salford, but I am really content with the career I have had, the mates I have had and memories I have made."

Oldham-born Flanagan comes from a strong rugby league pedigree, with his dad Terry once the Great Britain under 23 skipper and Lions tourist.

After two years at Wigan, Flanagan ventured off to Australia where he played 23 times in the NRL with Wests Tigers.

Saints boss Royce Simmons, who had coached Flanagan at Tigers, snapped him up at the end of 2011 describing the industrious packman as a player who "gets every ounce from his body" with each tackle.

He made a solid start in an otherwise troubled start to life at Langtree Park, but his 2013 campaign was cut short early in April with a bad knee injury.

But Flanagan was part of that 2014 team, ,that despite injuries to key personnel, battled to the top of the pile to win the League Leaders and then beat Wigan at 14-6 at Old Trafford.

Popular and hard-working, Flanagan has been at Salford since 2015