MELBOURNE Victory defender Matthieu Delpierre has retired.

The 35-year-old could not be coaxed in to playing one more season despite his standout form in 2015-16.

He will play in next week’s final Asian Champions League group match against Gamba Osaka at AAMI Park as well as the team’s Round of 16 games later this month should it advance.

Melbourne Victory defender Matthieu Delpierre has retired. Source: News Corp Australia

The loss of Delpierre means Victory will have at least three visa spots to fill next season, with Kosta Barbarouses and Gui Finkler departing for Wellington.

But one of Victory’s remaining foreigners, forward Fahid Ben Khalfallah, will have surgery this week to ­repair the right ankle that plagued him for much of the season.

Delpierre, a key cog in last season’s championship-winning side, said last night it was a tough decision to hang up the boots.

“But I believe now is the right time to finish my career,” he said.

“It has been an honour to represent this club.”

Ben Khalfallah won last year’s Victory Medal in a barnstorming debut A-League season, but fell away in 2015-16.

The Tunisian international played only one fewer game but was down in goals (six to five), shots (63 to 43) and assists (11 to five).

He and Finkler were also left out of Victory’s Champions League squad.

While not wanting to use the injury as an excuse for the dip in form, Ben Khalfallah, 33, said his right ankle had been sore for almost six months.

“It was hard for the season,” Ben Khalfallah said.

“That’s why I didn’t play the game against Newcastle (in Round 24) because I couldn’t walk for maybe three or four days. It was very hard.

“I (had) an injection to help me to finish the season. I don’t want to play next season like that, honestly.

“If I did, I couldn’t play to 100 per cent. I want to be at 200 per cent next year and be very ready.”

It wasn’t an impact injury that laid Ben Khalfallah low, rather an underlying problem that developed over time.

“I have a cyst close to my achilles and that is why there is big pain,” he said.

“Sometimes it is good, sometimes it was bad but at the end it was very, very bad.

“That’s why I needed the ­injection.”

Ben Khalfallah has one year to run on a two-season contract he signed last April.

He can be added to Victory’s Champions League squad should the team make the quarter-finals, a possibility given Finkler and Kosta Barbarouses’s departure to Wellington.

He admitted it had been tough watching the ACL from the sidelines.

“Yeah, it’s hard. I know they’re big games and I would like to play,” he said. “But Kevin made his choice and I respect that. I spoke with him.

“It’s just hard because you feel like you can help them and it’s big games ... H opefully after the group stage I can play.”