San Sebastian (Spain), May 8 (IANS): With Real Sociedad set to cut him loose next month, injury-plagued defender Carlos Martinez is hoping to be fit for the Spanish football club's upcoming home match against Leganes so he can bid farewell to the fans from the pitch.

"I'm going to use every means to try to be there on the field, because five days still remain. We will see," he said during a farewell event with teammates and club executives in the press room at Anoeta stadium on Monday, reports Efe.

Martinez, who hasn't played a match since 2016, said he was not disappointed by the club's decision to allow his contract to expire, "because here, things are not done out of charity".

"I still haven't assimilated the news and it will be hard for me not to go to Zubieta (the team's practice facility), or not to wake up thinking about Real because it's my life. I arrived at the age of 14 and I've never left here," he said.

During the course of his 18 years with the Real Sociedad organisation, the native of northern Spain's Navarre region climbed through the youth divisions to become part of the first team.

Martinez, 31, was an important member of the squad that won promotion to La Liga in 2010 and was likewise crucial to Real Sociedad's fourth-place finish in 2012-2013, which catapulted the club into the Champions League.

"Carlos entered Real in the year 2000 and it's an entire lifetime," club president Jokin Aperribay said, thanking the defender for having "given his best for Real to advance and to grow."