Mousa Dembele has revealed that he will retire next year rather than immediately as reports from Belgium claims this morning.

The former Fulham midfielder will not extend his current deal with Chinese Super League side Guangzhou City but plans to see out his present contract, which has a year to run. After stories broke in his native Belgium claiming that he had called time on an illustrious playing career, Dembele took to Instagram to set the record straight.

He posted: “Hi all, first of all I would like to say thank you for all the nice messages I have received. To clear up, I haven’t stopped yet. I still have a year on my contract left. But I can already share I will stop my career after this year is finished.”