"I enjoyed every minute of my time at Dinamo. I was asked to stay on for another season, and while the contract was very tempting, I just had this sense that it was best I didn't stay," he told the Australian.

"The tension between Georgia and Russia had been coming for some time.

"I've got a wife and two kids, a daughter aged nine and a two-year-old son to think about.

"But I thought enough is enough. It was time for me to give the game away and start concentrating on other things.

"Tell the folks back home I'm now officially retired."