Blues manager Kieran McKenna has paid tribute to Ashley Young, who announced yesterday that he will be retiring at the end of the season.

Young, 40, joined Town on a one-year deal last summer and has made only five starts and 10 sub appearances for the club with a hip injury having hampered the former England, Manchester United, Aston Villa, Inter Milan and Watford man in the second half of the season.

Nevertheless, McKenna says Young’s importance around the squad can’t be overstated.

“He’s been incredible,” he said. “Of course, a storied career now and the longevity of it and what he’s achieved speaks for itself. Everyone has that as another motivation tomorrow to also give him a good send-off.

“As I’ve said previously, he’s been outstanding in the group this year from the first day that he joined us in pre-season.

“It’s been a great insight for a lot of our players to see what the top, top, top echelon of professionals can train like, how to push themselves, how to push others.

“I think as a competitor, he’s almost unparalleled in the way he competes every day, pushes himself, pushes other people. 

“He’s got really old school values, but is also a really young 40-year-old, pardon the pun, and can mix with Sindre [Walle Egeli] and Jaden [Philogene], the younger members of the dressing room, really, really well.

“He’s been an exceptional player and he’s given the group an awful lot this year. It’s been unfortunate with the hip injury that he started struggling with a little bit more as we went into the winter, and then had an episode with it in January that meant he missed the last few months.

“But again, through that injury, he’s been at every away game, he’s in the dressing room before every game. If he’s not been training, he’s there watching training or pushing the boys around the session, before the session, after the session. 

“Right up until the last few weeks, the injury that he then did have in January, there’s one in a million that come back from that in the way that he has over the last few weeks. I’m pretty sure anyone else in his situation would have called it a day at that point because he picked up an injury in a session in January.

“But again, he wanted to get back, he wanted to help the group through the end of the season, whether it was going to be on the pitch or off the pitch.

“He went through all the rehab, did all the work to get back and train with us over the last five or six weeks and has been outstanding in training.

“Coaches and players both came in off the pitch today talking about how good he was in the small-sided games.

“Right from the start of his career, right through to the last three or four months, where he could easily in January have called it a day at that point and wished everyone the best for the season.

“He’s been at every away game, pushed really hard to get himself back fit and got himself to a point where he’s ready to go, and if the team needed him at the end of the season, he was ready to go into battle for us. 

“It’s been a brilliant career. I think he’s shown everything behind the scenes this year that makes it really clear to see why he’s had such a career.

“As well as everyone’s individual motivations for themselves, their families and for the supporters tomorrow, I think everyone would like that to be the last chapter of that story as well.”

McKenna says Young won’t be involved in the squad on Saturday: “We’ll go tomorrow with the defenders who have been fit. He’s been available for the last couple of weeks, which is a big credit to him.

“But I have to say, testament to Ash, when there were any sort of discussions about finishing up and announcing, things like that, his one clear message to me and to the team behind the scenes here has been that it’s about Saturday, it’s about the boys who are going to be playing and who have been playing over the last few months.

“Just him wanting to be right behind those boys and pushing them. We’ll go with the boys who have been fit over the last couple of months.”

He added: “Whether everyone would understand that to the extent Ash does, but it’s not even been a discussion. He just knows that it’s about pushing the boys who have been fit.

“If it had have panned differently in the games maybe it could have been different, but with the career he’s had, of course, you always want to finish it with your boots on, but hopefully he’ll have had a big part to play in a big season this season.”

Photo: Matchday Images