Mike Blair may have been forced to retire from playing for them but the former Scotland captain has pledged to continue to give his all in their bid to defend their Guinness Pro12 title.

The 35-year-old is the latest high profile to cite concussion as a factor in the timing of his decision to quit playing as he seeks to deal with on-going symptoms as a result of head knocks suffered earlier this season.

“I have seen neurologists a couple of times and I am going down to see another neurologist in Surrey tomorrow,” he revealed.

“I have still been having headaches but definitely improving.”

Not quickly enough, however, to allow him to play an on-field role in Glasgow Warriors’ bid to defend their Pro12 title as the play-offs loom.

“I’ve run out of time and am not in a situation now fitness wise to come back and play. I am not symptom free at the moment,” he added.

“I am very comfortable with the decison (to retire) now because I am still experiencing some concussion symptoms.

“Had it been two weeks ago when I had no symptoms at all and it was a case of right, I could maybe get back for the end of the season, maybe two or three games, that would have made things a lot more difficult.

“You are left with a decision, do I, not risk things with the concussion, but what is the risk/reward of being involved in these last two or three games?”

However the long-time Edinburgh stalwart has already been taking on coaching duties since returning to Scotland to join Glasgow after three seasons playing in France and England and his condition has merely accelerated his full-time switch to the backroom staff.

Following discussions with head coach Gregor Townsend he has been given exactly the job he had been hoping for focusing on the team’s attacking play while mentoring scrum-halves and young players as well as a role in their analysis work.

“It’s really exciting,” he said.

“I had a meeting with Gregor and this thing was on the cards for a while, but we met and discussed what I was going to be doing and if I’d written down what I wanted to do and shown it to Gregor it was pretty much exactly what he had written down to present to me.

“It’s a great role and I see there’s a hell of a lot of learning to be done. It’s certainly not the case because you’ve been a player you can get into coaching, I need to start coaching, start working with people.”

Blair admitted that he has ambitions to be a head coach and suggested that he is hopeful that he is moving into that side of the sport at a time when Scottish rugby is set to be more successful than it has been during his own playing career.

“It’s sort of coincided with my career that it’s been a fairly tough period,” he admitted.

“But there’s always green shoots out there and certainly at the moment with the Scottish team there’s a strength in depth coming through that we’ve not had.”