One of Scotland’s most promising players is to retire from the game at only 28. Donnie Macfadyen, the flanker, effectively has been driven out of the game by a devastating catalogue of injuries that have restricted him to a handful of matches over the past three seasons.

Typical of the grit that he has brought to his recovery battles, he waited until he was fully recovered from his latest setback before making the announcement and is to keep up his involvement with the sport, joining Edinburgh on a part-time basis to help with coaching strength and conditioning.

Macfadyen is part of the outstanding generation of Scottish players that also produced players such as Simon Taylor. Before his run of injuries he had just established himself as the regular open-side flanker in the Scotland side and was seen as one of the few Scots likely to go on the 2005 Lions tour, only to run into a teammate in training and tear open a knee, putting him out action for 18 months.

“It was just time,” he said yesterday. “It was a very difficult decision to make and I changed my mind about it probably more than twice a day for the last couple of months.

“I am very happy about it, though. I am certain it is the right decision. I’m excited about what I’m about to embark on, going back to university to study sport science, with a view to strength and conditioning coaching – an area that I have developed a particular interest in over the last few years, when I have been spending a lot of time in the gym.”

For all that, his decision does remind fans of the risks inherent in playing and training for rugby. His recent injuries include damage to both knees, requiring surgery, and lengthy rehabilitation in both cases, a groin-muscle tear, a broken foot and a hernia.

“When I came back from the first knee operation, I comforted myself with the thought that it could not happen again, that lightning couldn’t strike twice – and of course it did,” he said. “I’m sure people will say I’ve retired too soon but I’ve got to start looking to the future.

“I decided when I got injured that I would get back to playing again and be fit and available for selection and it was fantastic to get a couple of games in at the end of the season. It meant I went out as a fit player rather than somebody who was forced out by injury. Physically I am in good shape at the moment.”

In the normal way of things, losing a player of Macfadyen’s ability at what should have been the peak of his powers would have been a real problem for Frank Hadden, a known admirer of the player who took the first opportunity after the initial knee injury to rush the player into the international squad against South Africa two years ago, when he won what turned out to be his last cap.

The other frustration for Macfadyen is that, having stuck with Glasgow through a lengthy lean spell, he is leaving just as the team look as though they could be about to turn the corner.

“It is fantastic to see the guys doing so well,” he said. “I have seen how things have evolved here, the way things have started to go, and next season could be fantastic.

“The core of the squad is not the group of young guys who a couple of seasons ago were fresh-faced newcomers – they are now ready to take things forward.

“The back-row strength in depth in Scotland is fantastic. Just look at the results the guys have had – a convincing win in Ulster backed up by beating Munster, the European Cup finalists, in their own backyard. That kind of thing used to happen occasionally, now it is happening consistently.”