Former Arsenal star Henri Lansbury is now working on football pitches
Henri Lansbury is set to retire aged 32.
Former Arsenal youth graduate Henri Lansbury is set to retire aged 32 for a shock new career as he revealed how he got into his new venture.
Lansbury came through the ranks at Arsenal before representing the Gunners. But he played just eight games during his time at the club.
Though he enjoyed spells at the likes of Nottingham Forest, Aston Vila, Bristol City and spent last season at Luton Town, where he helped them win promotion to the Premier League.
He was released from Luton last month, with the midfielder set to call time on his professional career.
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Aged just 32, Lansbury could easily land another club. However, he's opted to walk away from the beautiful game as he looks to pursue one of his other passions.
He now works on football pitches after a lockdown hobby developed into a new career, with his new business venture called Grass Gains.
Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: "It came about during the first lockdown when I was stuck at home and got into gardening.
"I started to spray my weeds with toxic stuff and put toxic fertiliser down and my missus wasn’t too happy about the kids running on the grass straight after.
"I was trying to usher them off and she said 'why can’t they just make an organic fertiliser?'
"I put my head together with my mate and me and the boys have cracked on and taken it to another level."
Lansbury has already worked on Fulham's pitch as well as Belgium outfit Genk. His next stop is France, where he will work on AS Monaco's turf.
"We’ve done Fulham, we’ve done Genk and we’re in at Monaco soon," he added.
"We’re going in the right direction, a few local clubs have asked for it and we’ve put it down on their pitches as well.
"I want to give back to the local clubs really, I want them to have a nice pitch to play on, there’s nothing better than a kid running on a pitch with stripes on it and that’s what it does, it helps stripe it off."
Lansbury is now full-time on his grass venture and revealed he has a promising meeting with Homebase.
"It’s taken off really, and during the summer I’ve not kept fit and I’ve gone full-time on this, next week we have a meeting with Homebase," he continued.
"It was a massive weight off my shoulders really, I was injured before the World Cup and I haven’t been the same since.
"I haven’t really got any feeling in my legs, they had to operate and cut all the nerves in my thigh, I can train but it’s not been the same.
"Do I go back and try and force it or do I end on a high? My wife wants me out of the house but I said I’ll go and cut the grass."
Nasir Jabbar