Leeds United: Luke Ayling and Mateusz Klich react to Stuart Dallas retirement

Leeds United heroes Luke Ayling and Mateusz Klich have reacted to news that Stuart Dallas has been forced to retire from professional football.

The defender announced on his official Instagram account (10 April) that he won't be able to recover from a fractured femur suffered two years ago, and would be hanging up his boots for good.

The announcement sparked a huge outpouring of love from the Elland Road community, and fan favourite Klich left a touching comment under the post on social media.

"It's been [a] pleasure playing with you my friend," he wrote, accompanied by heart emojis and love-eye emojis, before adding, "all the best" with a blue and yellow heart.

Luke Ayling also commented on the post, simply saying "love you mate" accompanied by three white love heart emojis.

Stuart Dallas is Leeds United forever

It's a truly sad day for Leeds fans because there had been great hope that Dallas would be able to recover before the end of the season and get back on the pitch.

Everyone knew the seriousness of the injury he was dealing with and unfortunately, it was just too much for him to overcome this time.

Thankfully the club have revealed that they are in talks about a future role for him to keep him involved at Elland Road and the player will get to say goodbye to the fans at half-time during the weekend game.

That will come as a positive for fans after they were denied the opportunity to do the same for both Klich and Ayling, with both of their exits coming relatively out of the blue.

Dallas' retirement alongside Klich and Ayling's departures plus the situation with Liam Cooper's future means it really is the end of an iconic era for the football club.

In other Leeds news, Fabrizio Romano shares what he has heard about the future of one key star.

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