TT star Keith Amor may have had to quit the sport he loves due to injury but he can look back with pride on a successful career.
While the 39-year-old Scot - who lives in Cyrpus - will not have wanted his racing career to end this way he has had some good news recently as he became engaged to his girlfriend Charley at Christmas and they are expecting their first child together.
Keith began racing later in life and has had a great 10 years in the sport which has included five podiums at the TT.
Last year, in addition to road racing, he competed in the World Endurance Championship.
He explained: "I will be 40 this year and I have done a lot in racing in a short time.
"I started my career in 2011 at Knockhill with an orange bib at a Kirkcaldy club meeting as a novice and ended it 10 years later as a member of Honda Europe's TT Legends team.
"I didn't race any roads at all until 2005 and I only went full time in 2007.
"A lot of hard work went into getting here for it all to go wrong like this but everything changed with a simple twist of fate."
Keith said his decision to retire was a hard one and something he has agonised over for the last few months.
"I had three crashes last year and they left me in a lot of pain."
Two of the crashes were at the TT - the first in a practice session at Quarterbridge and the second at Union Mills during the second Supersport TT.
The third crash was at Leathemstown during the Ulster Grand Prix in August.
Keith said: "I had major surgery to both shoulders in November with the right having to be totally reconstructed and the ligaments tightened in the left as well.
"I had a MRI scan to check if the ops have been successful but the doc said it hadn't healed and I would need further surgery. So that's me done with racing."
He added: "I was injured all of last year and I am not going to ride in that condition again. I am in racing to win and I want to be competitive, not just be out there to make up the numbers."
TT and motorsport manager Paul Phillips said: "Despite his late start to TT racing Keith has had a great career.
"People often forget that he only began racing on the Mountain Course in 2007 and was a whisker away from Steve Plater as fastest newcomer that year.
"He finished on the podium in his second year and went on to claim at least one podium a year every year since.
"He quickly established himself as one of the leading TT riders and he was a great teammate to (17-times TT winner) John McGuinness last year.
"I have no doubt that had he continued to race at the TT fully fit he would have won races and he is a popular figure who will always be welcome on the Isle of Man."
