Motherwell's record appearance holder Steven Hammell is hanging up his boots to take charge of the club's youth academy.

The 35-year-old looks set to have played his last game for the Fir Park side, where he has spent the majority of his career.

Hammell will remain available for selection until the end of January to provide cover for Stephen Robinson's injury-hit side.

Having only featured six times this season, however, it is likely his last appearance for the club came in last week's Lanarkshire derby defeat to Hamilton Accies.

Hammell has pulled on the claret and amber 582 times since making his debut at the age of 18 in a league defeat to Aberdeen in 2000.

His only spell away from the club came between 2006 and 2008 when he moved to Southend for 18 months.

The defender featured for Motherwell in two cup finals over his two spells at the club, losing to Rangers in the League Cup in 2004 and Celtic in the Scottish Cup six years later.

The current vice-captain was at the club during the dark days of administration but enjoyed the high of helping maintain their Scottish Premiership status at the end of the 2014/15 season when they beat Rangers in the play-off final.

Hammell will take over as director of the Motherwell's youth academy with immediate effect, taking the place of Scott Leitch who left the club by mutual consent in December.

Speaking to STV, Hammell said he is proud of his time so far at Motherwell.

"It's almost 20 years ago to the day I signed," he said.

"It's been a long and eventful time and I'm sad to see it come to an end."

He added: "It's a pathway I've been looking at now for a number of years, it's not something that's just fallen into my lap.

"I've been preparing myself for the last ten years so I've taken a lot from managers and also my own ideas and philosophy in the game.

"I came in as a young boy and the fans were magnificent with me, they still are, and that's my job now to get more of these boys in there."