I knew this day was coming eventually. Retirement was coming in the next year for me in any case, but I was hoping to do it on my own terms.

I'm shattered that my knee has packed it in now, particularly after all the hard work I've done over the past few months in Brisbane preparing for this series. I obviously wrestled with the decision for a while after I was given the bad news about my scans on Friday, and spoke to the medical people and my wife, my father and my brother, but deep down I knew.

What gives me heart, though, is how well-equipped the other boys in our fast bowling unit are to do the job in England over the next six weeks.  I've been watching Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Peter Siddle bowl in the nets and in the tour games and all I can see is pace.

Obviously I wanted to get myself up and ready to go but knowing that we've got guys there that did so well in the West Indies and are probably going to be on wickets that are more suited to the way they bowl, it's exciting. Good luck to the English batsmen.

Once you get through Johnson you've got to get through Starc as well and then Hazlewood. Normally you can sit on one bowler in a side – the English won't be able to do that.

The way Johno is bowling I reckon there are definitely going to be some scars there from what he did to them in Australia two summers ago. Just because we're on slower wickets than probably what we were on in Australia the ball is still coming out quick and it's swinging. The way England played him in Australia wasn't very good and if anything he's probably bowling better.

He can do that job of bowling with the new ball, and pitching it up and swinging it, and then he can go back to trying to intimidate them.

Johno and Starcy have both just got raw pace. Mitch Starc swings any ball he gets but Johno was been swinging the ball here really late, so as a unit they just complement each other really well.

Then there is Josh, who has really improved his pace and his lengths, and he swings it as well at a good speed. There's a lot of talk that English conditions will suit him and I agree, he'll be good here. He can bowl quite full because he gets that bounce because he's so tall. And if he hits that good area, we know the ball swings and nips around. The English guys hang back a lot as well so it's just going to allow him to bowl fuller which is going to be even harder.

Throw in Pete Siddle, who is bowling really well, and now Patty Cummins into the mix and that just adds more pace.

As disappointing as it is to retire now, the rise of the next generation of quicks including guys like James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile has been in the back of my mind for a while. It's not that I felt any pressure or anything like that. It was more about seeing them come through and improve. Watching Josh and Starcy in the West Indies that was probably the first time I actually thought 'I've got to be on here, otherwise I'm not going to play', and that was a good thing.

I was never worried about it but it was more a challenge to myself to see if I could get myself up and going. Obviously I couldn't but to see these guys mature and bowl the way they are is great.

I'm not one for the tit-for-tat stuff before Ashes series but we've noted a couple of things that have been said. We saw that Mark Wood came out and said something about Shane Watson spraying him a few years ago. All I can say about that is he's going to be facing some pretty serious bouncers so he better get himself ready.

As a rule, though, I know the boys are not worrying too much about what England are doing. They've got a new coach come in – he's an Aussie,  but he's one of them now.

As for me, I've got to go back and have surgery on the knee, and the next step then is getting involved in coaching. We're coming into a cricket season so I would love to be involved, hopefully with Queensland.

I've spoken to the Queensland coach Phil Jaques already and he's been great. I've got to get this surgery done so I'm able to be mobile throughout the summer to get some experience, even if it's just throwing balls. More importantly, though, I want to get into the administrative side to learn what I need to become a coach.

In the meantime, though, I'll be staying in England for a while and am looking forward to watching the boys try to bring back the Ashes. I've got no doubt they can.