American forward Charlie Davies retires from soccer at 31

American forward Charlie Davies, whose career was derailed by a car crash in 2009, is retiring from soccer at age 31.

Davies scored four goals in 17 appearances for the U.S. before he was a passenger in a car crash on Oct. 13, 2009 that killed another passenger and left him with two broken bones in his right leg, a dislocated left elbow, a ruptured bladder, bleeding on the brain and broken bones in his nose, forehead and eye socket. The driver was found to be drunk and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Loaned from the French club Sochaux to Major League Soccer’s D.C. United, Davies returned to first-team soccer on March 19, 2011, with a pair of goals against Columbus. He went back to Sochaux but played just two matches in 2011-12, then moved to Denmark’s Randers for 2012-13 and the New England Revolution from 2013-15.

He spent the last two seasons with the Philadelphia Union, failing to score in 11 league matches. Davies had 25 goals in 101 MLS matches but never regained the pace he showed with the national team. His most significant goal was a go-ahead strike for the U.S. in a 2-1 loss at Mexico in a World Cup qualifier in August 2009.

Davis was diagnosed with liposarcoma in the spring of 2016 and said that summer it was in remission.

In a video statement on his Twitter account Friday, Davies says “I’ve loved every second of my time on the field, even the desperate lows of injury and cancer that eventually made the highs all that much sweeter.”