Playing for Queensland and Australia at just 21 was the worst thing that could have happened to Brad Meyers, according to former team mate and Brisbane great Shane Webcke.

Gold Coast's Meyers, 31, announced his immediate retirement on Monday after being told a wrist injury would keep him off the field for the rest of 2011.

"It's not the way I would have liked my career to finish but sometimes that's what happens, you can't control injuries," said Meyers, who has played 177 NRL matches for Brisbane and the Titans and a further 51 for Bradford Bulls in the English Super League.

The red-haired forward may not have set the rugby league world on fire.

But he leaves the game having played for Queensland and Australia, having won a premiership with Bradford in 2005 and having ground out 228 games at the toughest level.

"For a bloke who struggled early and had his toughness (unfairly) questioned, he's put together a career, hasn't he," Webcke told AAP.

Webcke, who played over 254 games for Brisbane 21 Tests and 20 Origins, said being thrust into representative football so young didn't do Meyers any favours.

Meyers played all three Origins for Queensland in 2001 and four Tests for Australia but never played representative football after that.

"It was the worst thing that could have happened to him," said Webcke.

"He could never live up to those expectations. He was always trying to resurrect himself after that."

Webcke said while it was a wonderful honour playing rep football it could be a poison for players not ready to deal with the expectation.

"It came too early, before he'd learned how to be a consistent footballer at rep level," said Webcke.

"When you think of toughness, you think of players like Gorden Tallis.

"But players like Brad, who struggled early, have had to do it another way and that's probably harder."

Webcke's first impression of Meyers was of a "big giggling kid".

"He loved to laugh and crack jokes and was good to have around," he said.

"But it was hard to get him cranky to play footy."

Webcke did his best to bring out his aggression because it wasn't in his personality.

"I wasn't nasty because I cared about him," he said.

"But I bashed the crap out of him because I knew he had it in him.

"Most of the time he just laughed at me.

"But every so often he'd get cranky and angry and that's when he'd play really well."

Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett chose Dane Carlaw over Meyers for a first grade call up in 1999.

Meyers played a couple of games in 2000 when Brisbane won the premiership and got his chance in 2001 when a number of Brisbane players retired or left the club.

"To play as many games as Brad did and achieve as much as he did is a tribute to him," said Bennett.

"He was a very tradesman-like as a player."

Meyers will apply that tradesman-like attitude to his new profession in the building industry.

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