Hodge announces the end of the road

Veteran Brad Hodge has finally drawn the curtain on a playing career that began almost 25 years ago.

The 43-year-old, who missed the latter stages of the KFC BBL season with the Melbourne Renegades due to complications caused by appendicitis, said this season will be his last.

"This will be the end of the road," Hodge told News Corp.

"I’ll represent (Melbourne club) East Sandringham in the finals and that will be it for my cricket career."

The right-hander played six Tests, 25 one-day internationals and 15 T20 internationals for Australia between 2005 and 2014 and has continued to play Big Bash cricket in recent years.

He finishes his career with more than 33,000 runs across the three forms of the game domestically and his tally of 7406 T20 runs is the sixth-most of all time.

Hodge has revealed the seriousness of the illness that forced him to miss the Renegades' final two group matches of the BBL and their semi-final loss to Adelaide on Friday.

The Victorian initially spent three days in hospital in Canberra ahead of their match against the Thunder, where he had his burst appendix removed before returning home to Melbourne.

But an infection resulted in further hospitalisation and more surgery, with Hodge revealing had he delayed his return to hospital, or been living in a different era, things could have been far more serious.

"Technology now keeps you up and about, but (the doctor) stated that 30-40 years ago it could have been the end of the road," he said.

"Time-wise for me, I was probably fortunate I went in (to hospital) on the Saturday in Melbourne. If I’d left it another 24 hours it could have been a lot worse.

"The surgeon didn’t paint a great picture of what was happening inside there."

Despite the seriousness of his condition, Hodge said he was "devastated" when his enquiries to doctors about making a quick recovery in time for the Renegades' push towards a possible BBL title were met in the negative.

Speaking at the start of last summer, Hodge said he would continue to play if he felt he could contribute.

"It's a good fun time, I love being involved and I really look forward to it," he told bigbash.com.au of playing in the BBL.

"My thoughts on playing are if you can't make an impact, then don't play.

"If I can't do what I have to do on the field, then I'll walk off and pack it in."

Hodge batted just five times in BBL|07 and was only dismissed twice, posting scores of 22no, 9no, 3, 4 and 30no.