Hawthorn defender Trent Croad has been forced to give in to a medical ultimatum - retire from AFL football or never walk properly again.

Croad on Wednesday revealed doctors told him recently that unless he quit the game the foot he fractured in the Hawks' 2008 grand final victory over Geelong would deteriorate to the point where he could risk serious damage.

The 29-year-old, who has played 222 matches, including 38 for Fremantle, told teammates of his decision to retire after he spent last season vainly attempting to rehabilitate himself.

Croad snapped a bone in his foot during the first half of the premiership victory - although he was still able to limp a few metres to lay an effective tackle on a Cats opponent before returning to the bench.

A boom recruit when picked up from the Dandenong Under-18s with a No.3 overall selection at the 1997 national draft, Croad was widely considered to have underperformed during his first stint with the Hawks between 1998 and 2001.

Croad said surgeons told him were he to suffer another fracture he would have no function of the foot at all.

"The hardest thing to do was to look at your teammates and say you can no longer be part of it," he said.

"My last moment in football was on grand final day and what a wonderful thing. You can't plan that sort of thing, you can only dream of it I suppose.

"What destroyed me or what broke me on the day will hopefully make me later on in life," he said.

But his most vivid moment came after he left the field.

"Probably sitting down in the rooms when I got taken down to check the foot and I was down there for a quarter and I was watching up on the little screen on one of the massage tables and we had that rare five minutes (of multiple goals)," Coad said.

"(That's) where I reckon we turned the game and I just jumped off the massage table and started heading towards the bench.

"I just want to make a statement that I'm the only bloke to have ever hopped on one leg around the MCG - a full lap.

"It may have taken eight Pethedine sticks but I'm alright."

Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said the club had worked hard to try to get Croad back on the field but were unwilling to push him against expert advice.

"It is a tough decision," Clarkson said.

"It's one that our medical staff have been a bit jumpy on ever since the injury. We knew it was a very, very serious injury at the time.

"You always want to be as positive as you possibly can but our medicos always held grave fears for Croad to be able to return to his normal best.

"We pushed down the line of trying to get his foot right and ready to play but it got to November of 2009 and it just hadn't responded to the type of treatment that we hoped it would," he said.

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