JACK BUILDING A NEW FUTURE

Back on the tools as King hangs up his boots

- David Richardson

CAREER HIGH: Jack King won promotion to the Championship with Preston North End in between spells at Woking, inset top, and Ebbsfl eet, below

JACK King will be back on a building site tomorrow morning just a week after announcing his retirement from football.

The 34-year-old has brought the curtain down on a unique career in which he played at every level from Step 5 up to League One, where he won promotion to the Championship with Preston North End.

But it will be back to reality when his alarm sounds in the early hours of Monday and work restarts for his dad’s building company – more than 15 years on from when he first started in the trade – although it’s a return he expected.

“He’s always said I need to stop messing around with a football and get back to the building site, finally he’s got his way!” joked King, who will eventually take control of the business as his 71-year-old father plans to take a step back. “I’ve always kept in contact with it.

“I run the job on a site and take control of our guys that work there. That’s the role I’ll be going back into to start and then looking at more of an eye to the future in terms of overseeing things from the top.

“I’ve enjoyed my time in football. I could probably play on for a few more years yet, but I made the decision maybe two years ago and confirmed it throughout this season because of this outside interest.”

Indeed, King, who clocked over 700 appearances, first started working in the building industry after he returned to Oxfordshire having been rejected a professional deal at Swansea City.