A former WWE champion has admitted that his career is coming to its end, more than two decades after his in-ring debut.

A lifetime in professional wrestling brings with it a significant amount of accumulated damage on the body, with performers regularly suffering serious injuries from their time inside the ring.

As such, knowing exactly when to step away from competition has repeatedly proven to be a difficult proposition, even for some of the sport’s most famous stars.

At 46-years-old and with a lifetime of experience under his belt AJ Styles recently admitted that he is starting to look towards a life after wrestling.

The former TNA and New Japan star was defeated by LA Knight at WrestleMania 40 last week and in the lead-up to the showdown explained that he feels like he is coming to the end of his time as an active competitor.

AJ Styles admitted that the end of his storied career inside the ring is on the horizon

The 46-year-old revealed that an accumulation of injuries have left him struggling to get out of bed at times

‘I’m getting to that point where I am worried about embarrassing myself,’ Styles told The Ringer Wrestling Show.

‘My brain says “we can do this”, and my body is like, “you’re stupid, we can not do this”, we’re hurting every day when we roll out of bed, at some point this has to come to an end.

‘I’ve realized, like so many others that have come before me, the greats, they get out of it when we think there’s still time for them, and it’s because we don’t want to embarrass ourselves, so we’re just trying to get out while we still can, where we can still get around and just have fun away from wrestling, and I love it, this what I do, this is what I know.

‘I’ve spent more than half my life doing this, but at some point you’ve got to let go. I don’t want to disappoint you when you see AJ Styles, I want you to go, “that’s my guy, that’s the guy I know”, rather than go “man, he just isn’t the same guy, he can’t do what he used to do”.

‘I don’t want to be that guy to you, I don’t want to let you down. My time is coming, it’s getting short, but I am going to enjoy it, I promise you that.’

The former TNA star was defeated by LA Knight during Night Two of WrestleMania 40

After debuting in 1998, Styles famously turned down a WWE developmental contract before establishing himself as one of the greatest in-ring performers in wrestling history.

Following months of speculation he finally signed with WWE in 2016, debuting at the Royal Rumble that year and has since gone on to twice win the company’s world title.