Nicola Adams, the two-time Olympic champion and current WBO flyweight world champion, has announced her retirement from boxing at the age of 37.

Adams penned an open letter to her local newspaper, the Yorkshire Evening Post, in which she revealed that continuing her in-ring career risked serious injury.

The Leeds-born fighter later confirmed on BBC Radio 5 Live that she suffered a torn pupil in her eye during her last fight, against Maria Salinas in September.

“I didn’t think it would be anything too serious but I had torn the pupil in my eye,” she said.

“As a black female, too, she has been really good and she’s shown people that actually you can do whatever you want to do,” said Stokes.

“She was just like anyone else, a young woman with dreams.

“It just shows that no matter where you are from or what your background is that, if you put the hard work in, you put your mind to it, that you can do it.

“She’s given everyone hope.”