Conor Coady, former Wolves captain and England defender, retires at 33

Conor Coady, the former Wolverhampton Wanderers captain and ex-England defender, has retired from playing at the age of 33, the BBC reported on 6 November 2026. He had been without a club since leaving Wrexham in September.

Coady made 317 of his 503 club appearances in a Wolves shirt and won 10 England caps during his career. He began as a promising midfielder in the Liverpool academy, where he was compared in some quarters to Steven Gerrard, moved on loan to Sheffield United in 2013 and signed for Huddersfield Town at the end of that season, before being converted into a central defender by then boss Nuno Espirito Santo and enjoying his greatest success at Wolves.

Signed by then Wolves boss Kenny Jackett in 2015, Coady played a major part in the club's promotion back to the Premier League in 2018. He captained Wolves as they twice finished seventh in the Premier League and reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

Across his career he made 503 club appearances in total and scored 22 goals for club and country, seven of which came while he was at Wolves. He was allowed to leave Wolves on loan for Everton in 2022.

After the Everton loan, Coady joined Leicester for a reported £8.5m in July 2023 after Everton opted not to complete a £4.5m deal to turn his season-long loan into a permanent switch. He later had a short spell at Wrexham that ended prematurely before his final move to The Valley to join Nathan Jones' Charlton on loan last season.

Coady has worked as a pundit for BBC Radio 5 Live and has been linked with a move into coaching. He has already been linked with the role of assistant head coach at League One side Barnsley.