The vastly experienced keeper has a total of 582 appearances to his name for Mansfield Town, Notts County, Nottingham Forest, Norwich City, Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan.

Some 489 of these were in the league along with eight international appearances for Wales at full, 'B' and U21 levels.

He said: "I still have a great appetite for football but unfortunately my body hasn't so it's a no brainer for me to retire from playing.

"I know that if I continue with my playing career I could do myself long-term damage so sadly it's time to stop but I am very keen to pass on my experience and am looking to get into coaching."

coaching position

Ward has a lot to offer the game and is busy preparing himself for a life as a coach.

He added: "I've done my level two qualification and am looking to obtain my UEFA B Licence level three qualification at Lilleshall this summer.

"At level three you cover both outfield and goalkeeping coaching and I'm looking to do both. In an ideal world it would be great if I could land on my feet and gain a coaching position at a club near home but I'd look at going anywhere because, as a footballer you never say never and I would consider a club no matter where they were."

Worksop-born, Ward began his career with Mansfield Town, playing just under a century of matches for The Stags. He turned out more than 300 times for Notts County and made close to 150 appearances for Nottingham Forest. Ward. He then enjoyed a two-year spell at Norwich City as understudy to Robert Green before coming to Sunderland where he became a key member of the team that won the Championship in 2007.

football ethics

Ward said: "It was beyond my wildest dreams to play for Sunderland at that stage of my career.

"I'd been given a free by Norwich when Bobby Saxton rang me up and asked me to come and provide some experience as Sunderland at the time had young Ben Alnwick in goal.

"To be associated with Niall Quinn and then Roy Keane and all that has happened at Sunderland in the last three years has been phenomenal for me and to be part of a promotion winning team was fantastic.

"Looking back on my career I had success with Notts County where we won promotion and broke stacks of records under Sam Allardyce and I enjoyed my time at Nottingham Forest and the football ethics applied by Paul Hart who was in charge at the City Ground at the time.

"Going way back to my league debut in a midweek game for Mansfield against Hartlepool I still don't know how I kept a clean sheet in that match as I dropped every cross I had to deal with in the first few minutes but as a kid to get the nod of approval to be able to play league football is something that's never left me.

"It's a long way from a game at Field Mill to playing against Figo and Portugal which I did on my debut for Wales when he stuck a free-kick past me but you learn from every game and now I'm in a position where I'm able to pass all my experience on.

"I've really enjoyed my time at Sunderland and hope the club goes on to be successful because the club and the supporters deserve it."