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I called Keith for a quick chat on the morning his departure was made public. Half an hour later he was still on the other end of the phone talking passionately about how he will recover from his knee ligament injury to prove Leeds wrong for letting him go.

There is no bitterness. Senior is loved at Leeds and he respects how good the club has been to him, but he does not accept that he has no more to offer.

"It's a weird feeling getting sacked from your job and not having work to go to the next day, " he told me, although the ultimate contract termination was by mutual consent.
"It was all amicable. Gary shook my hand as I left the office for the last time and told me .

"The hard thing to accept is that I was still the number one centre at Leeds this year. It is disappointing as I remain the best centre they have got but they still couldn't retain me. People say I have lost pace but I haven't lost that much.

"I appreciate Leeds are looking to the future and I am not the future. I am not the next big thing at left centre which is what they are looking for so there is no way they could retain me. I told them I didn't want to be a squad player as I still have goals and aspirations in this game."

Senior played at Headingley for 12 years after signing from Sheffield Eagles

There was talk Senior may be kept on and used as a second rower next year. "Why would I move into the pack and do more work?" he laughed. "If they don't think I'm good enough at centre then why would I be at forward?"

Senior believes he is good enough for two more years at the top and he is set to be granted his wish with one final contract. I understand he will form a veteran centre partnership with Gareth Thomas at Crusaders next year where coach Iestyn Harris wants experience and leadership to give the club creditability.

I expect Senior to sign a two-year contract with the Welsh club having had offers from other Super League sides including Widnes, and, surprisingly, invitations to try his hand at rugby union in France.

Veteran players often have coaching opportunities written into their final playing contracts too, but Senior will not.

"I don't want to coach now. I couldn't be a first-team coach. I've had enough rubbish over my playing career to not want to put up with that in coaching," he said.

"It's a ruthless industry, very cut throat. Guys who do that need a certain attitude and temperament and I don't think I have that."

After a record-breaking 199 Super League tries in 413 games, there is no way he would drop down a division either. He would rather retire.

"After playing at the top level for so long I would find it degrading to lower myself to play in those leagues. It is not what I've spent my whole career working so hard for," is his frank assessment.

Senior's Leeds legacy lists four Grand Final triumphs including an historic hat-trick between 2007 and 2009. He won the Challenge Cup with Sheffield in 1998, though never with Leeds, and has been named in the Super League Dream Team five times, including last season at the age of 34.

There is one big regret, and you can still feel the disappointment as he talks about it six years on.

Eight days before the 2005 Challenge Cup final, Leeds' main attacking weapon was on a stretcher clutching his ankle. I saw him the day before the final in Cardiff and he was still hobbling.

John Kear, the coach of opponents Hull, said if Senior was fit to play left centre then Kear himself would kit up and line up at right. Incredibly, Senior was named in the team after having an injection in his ankle. He was a passenger in the first half and didn't emerge for the second, as the .

"That is my one regret," says Senior, who was accused by some in the wake of the defeat of letting his team down by claiming he was fit. "I have never been in that position before having never had a serious injury and to be honest I had no idea how to deal with it," he tells me.

"I could still walk and do a little bit of running and felt there was a slight chance I could play. I felt pressure from the coach (Tony Smith) to play in the game. Looking back that is my biggest regret and I felt I let the boys down."

Six years on Senior is now sat on his sofa with his second serious injury, and one that has led to the end of his Leeds career.

He is bored and frustrated about his broken body, and has put an obviously active mind to good use by penning his autobiography.

He had already had six physio sessions on the day I spoke to him, and was doing extra exercises on the sofa as we chatted.

Senior winced in pain twice during the interview and tells me he is trying to build himself back up after losing eight kilos of muscle since suffering the injury. He is now ditching the crutches to strengthen the leg muscles again, but is still some way off even resuming his surprise hobby of show jumping.

You would not expect to see a rugby league man mountain on the back of a horse jumping over fences but Senior loves riding his own stallion, Tommy.

"I can't even ride it at the moment so my partner is out having lessons so she can keep him fit. I won't be able to go jumping on him for a good few months," he said.

With their stalwart gone, Leeds must find another thoroughbred in their stable. Existing options are Kallum Watkins, Ben Jones-Bishop and Lee Smith but I know none of them want to play in that position. I understand Leeds have spent the last few months scouting and may well announce a big name signing in the next few weeks.

As for Senior, he will be back at Headingley in different colours next year and you can be sure the South Stand will continue to chant his name.

The legs may be going, the powerful line-breaks perhaps decreasing in frequency, but on his day there have been few more fearsome centres in Super League history.