Giggs set for international retirement

Manchester United left winger, Ryan Giggs has validated his international retirement. He will be playing his last game for Wales against the Czech Republic on Saturday. The 33-year-old’s final cap will be his 64th in a career that has lasted 16 years. Giggs said, Saturday will be my last game for my country, I feel it’s a good time to retire. It’s a very difficult decision for me. I love my country, I love captaining my country but I feel it’s the right time. The winger said he took this decision a month before but denied that it had been brought on by a lack of motivation, though he admitted that he had not performed his best football for Wales in recent matches. Giggs also confessed international football had provided his two biggest disappointments as a professional, the two being Wales’s narrow failure to qualify for the World Cup in 1994 and 2002. Manager John Toshack paid tribute to his outgoing captain, who will hand the armband over to Craig Bellamy on a permanent basis. Giggs has just enjoyed one of his best seasons with Manchester United and being shortlisted for the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year award. But the midfielder announced on Wednesday that Saturday’s Euro 2008 qualifier against the Czech Republic in Cardiff would be his last appearance in a Wales shirt.