Deco`s decision to quit was his own: Fluminense

Rio de Janeiro: Fluminense have denied that former Portugal midfielder Deco was pushed into retirement.

Deco Monday ended his decorated career, admitting his body could no longer cope with playing. Fluminense`s football vice president Sandro Lima said the club had no influence on the decision. "It was a personal decision," Lima said. "It`s always difficult for a player at the highest level to stop playing but we respect his decision and lament it due to everything that he has done for Fluminense." The announcement followed a string of injuries that reduced Deco to just five appearances in the Campeonato Brasileiro this season. He has also been the subject of controversy after testing positive to a banned diuretic earlier this year. Deco faces a retrial before a Rio sports tribunal next month after prosecutors appealed a 30-day ban already served by the 36-year-old. In the original sentence, a panel accepted that Deco had unwittingly taken the substance in a vitamin supplement. Deco expressed his gratitude to Fluminense, where he won two Brazilian league titles after joining the club from Chelsea in August 2010. "It was a very happy period for me at Fluminense and I would like to have helped the club more this season, but my body would not let me," the former playmaker said in a written statement. Deco, who was capped 75 times for Portugal, is one of only nine players to have won the UEFA Champions League with two different clubs -- Porto (2004) and Barcelona (2006). IANS