Former Maidstone favourite Alex Flisher has announced his retirement from football, aged just 30.

Flisher is calling it a day after suffering a fresh knee injury during pre-season training with Hythe.

The winger, who overcame serious knee injuries during his time with Maidstone and Margate, is set to undergo his fourth operation early next month.

With work and a young family to consider, the dad-of-two can’t keep putting his body through the strain of trying to come back from injuries.

Flisher was taking part in shuttle runs - also known as doggies - at the end of a training session when his knee gave way.

He knew then the game was up, with a scan showing what’s known as a bucket-handle tear in his cartilage.

Days earlier, he'd pulled on a Maidstone shirt again to play in Bill Williams' testimonial.

“I literally ran five yards to the first cone, put my left leg down and went to turn back and as I’ve turned it just popped,” said Flisher, who rejoined Hythe from Sittingbourne over the summer and also played for Dartford.

“I felt it go and I think I heard it go and that was it.

“I was in a bit of pain, I was just sat there and I was thinking to myself, ‘This is it now, I can’t keep doing this’.

“I did all the training fine, turning, sprinting, everything, and then we went and did these doggies and I ran five yards and that was it, it just popped.

“I don’t want to be in the position where I can’t walk properly for the rest of my life and obviously I need to work as well.

“It’s not just football I’ve got to think about.

“I’m literally just 30 so it’s not ideal, but what can you do?

“I did my cartilage in my right knee last year, I had a slight tear and I had an injection, and after that me and George (Flisher’s wife) said if I have anything else, that’s it.

“Last season my shoulder must have popped out five or six times during games and that was playing on my mind whether to call it a day then.

“I haven’t missed football yet. I’m still in the WhatsApp groups, so I still get most of the chat and stuff.

“I think it’ll be more just the exercise that I miss, just getting out and playing more than anything.

"I’ll end up being in the garden more, getting the ball walloped at me by Louis (Flisher’s five-year-old son).

“To be fair, Louis is quite into football, he keeps saying about going to watch Maidstone, so I’ll be able to take him now.”

Flisher discussed his retirement plan with surgeon Prof Anan Shetty, who was in full agreement.

That was the confirmation he needed.

“I’ve had a scan and I’ve got an operation on September 9,” said Flisher.

“This will be my fourth operation with him and I said to him, ‘That’s it now, I’m going to call it a day, I can’t keep going through the pain and the hassle' and he said, ‘I think that’s probably for the best.’

“He agreed with me and when someone of his knowledge says that, that’s it, you’ve just got to give it up.

“I’d still be able to play in charity games and stuff like that but playing competitively, Saturday-Tuesday, and training, I can’t keep going.”

Flisher made 275 appearances in eight years with hometown club Maidstone, winning three promotions.

A huge favourite on the terraces, he was in the form of his life in the 2014/15 Ryman Premier title campaign, scoring 16 goals in half a season before suffering his first knee injury at a time when Football League clubs were circling.

He returned 10 months later and won his third promotion with the Stones as Jay Saunders’ side upset Ebbsfleet in a dramatic National South play-off final.

That gave him the opportunity to play in the top flight of non-league football, where highlights included an early-season goal at Tranmere.

Steve Watt, Flisher’s boss at Hythe and former Maidstone team-mate, is convinced he would have played in the Football League were it not for that first injury, describing his retirement as “heartbreaking”.

Flisher, who is looking into taking his coaching badges, sometimes wonders what might have been - although he has enough memories from Maidstone to last a lifetime.

“It was quite well-known that Gillingham were interested and I remember seeing Andy Hessenthaler and Darren Hare in Mumu’s one night and they said Gills were coming in with an offer,” said Flisher.

“I heard there was a list of other teams and Graham Westley (manager of Stevenage, who Maidstone beat in the FA Cup) had spoken to Bill (Williams, Stones chief executive).

“I do sometimes think what might have been but in the end when I came back from the injury, I managed to get in the Conference so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

“Just to get back was a big thing and on the back of that I got another promotion.

“There’s a few favourite moments.

“Winning the Ryman Prem, I know I only played half a season, but that was probably the best team I’ve played in with all the boys and I still made the team-of-the season, so I was quite impressed with that.

“The FA Cup run that season is another one, the Ebbsfleet game and even going from playing at Ashford to Sittingbourne to Maidstone was quite a big moment in the grand scheme of things, going from 200 people watching to 2,000.

“It changed overnight when the Gallagher opened.

“The club were expecting an average crowd of 800 and in the first five or six years I don’t think it ever dropped below a thousand for a game, did it?

“I was showing Louis that Tranmere goal, he watches Maidstone videos now on YouTube, so I end up watching back the old goals.

"The Gosport one in Conference South was a favourite.

“It was something like the 93rd minute, from a goal-kick and I chested it down and volleyed it in.

“To be fair, the biggest cheer or the biggest buzz I got was my first game back after the injury.

“Matt Bodkin scored a hat-trick against South Park in the FA Cup and I set up his last goal.

“I must have only played five or 10 minutes and I was blowing, I was absolutely gone, I made one sprint across the back four and that was it, I just stood in my position after that.

“That was the biggest cheer, that or when I get called out to get my medal when we picked up the Ryman trophy.

“I was lucky, I always got a good reception, I can’t complain.”