Former Tour de France winner Andy Schleck has revealed that the fear of "irreversibly" injuring his knee played a part in his decision to retire from cycling.

Schleck, who suffered the injury during the third stage of this year's Tour de France, has made little progress with his rehabilitation, and three months on from the incident, the Luxembourg rider has opted to bring his career to an end.

The 29-year-old is quoted by BBC Sport as saying: "I would have liked to keep on fighting but my knee doesn't allow it. Since my crash in the United Kingdom, there has hardly been any progress.

"While the ligaments have healed, the damaged cartilage is another story. I have been working hard on rehabbing the knee but came to the hard realisation that at the risk of irreversibly injuring it, this is the best course of action."

In 2012, Schleck was named as the 2010 winner of the Tour de France after Alberto Contador was stripped of the title for a failed drugs test.