The former Glasgow captain was told by coach Matt Williams he would miss out on the 34-man RBS 6 Nations Championship training squad, despite being part of this week's camp, and Mather decided he did not have the heart for another battle.

Mather considered quitting in the summer having battled back from a pectoral muscle injury which curtailed his championship last season and then struck again in the autumn Tests against Australia but he vowed to fight back into contention.

But the latest setback is a bitter blow to the player especially with Williams having back-row problems ahead of their opening RBS 6 Nations showdown with France in Paris.

Mather said: ''I just didn't feel I had the will to do it anymore at international level.
''I was planning to tell that to Matt when he called.

''I was like an 18-year-old again when I was back playing in the World Cup and then in the Six Nations but the body doesn't feel like that when it gets bad injuries.

''Fighting back to full fitness has been a struggle but I seem to lack the desire to fight my way back into the international reckoning again having done so on previous occasions.

''The will just isn't there to prove everybody wrong again.''