Rugby: Neck injury ends Thompson career

England hooker Steve Thompson has been forced to retire with immediate effect after suffering another neck injury.

He has been experiencing numbness and dizziness since hitting a scrum machine in training with Wasps on 26 October and he will have an operation on Tuesday. The 33-year-old briefly retired in 2007 after undergoing surgery on a different neck injury – but this time he has been told there is no way back.

The injury occurred two days before Thompson made his debut for Wasps, who he joined from Leeds in the summer. Thompson played in Wasps’ 14-12 win at Worcester but that was to prove the final match of a career which brought him 73 England caps, three for the Lions and a 2003 World Cup winners’ medal.

• Mauro Bergamasco has signed for Aironi. The 88-times capped Italian international flanker, 32, who spent the past seven years at Stade Francais, will join the RaboDirect Pro12 basement club from tomorrow.

• Former Ireland scrum-half Peter Stringer, 33, has signed for Saracens on a three-month loan deal from Munster.