The 34-year-old, who was part of Australia's teams that finished runners-up to the United States at Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 and that won a bronze medal at London 2012, said right knee and left Achilles tendon injuries left her with no other option but to end a career that started in 1997.

She had been named in Australia’s Opals squad for this August’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but recent fitness tests convinced her she would not be able to compete in a fifth Games.

"Today I’m announcing my retirement from the love of my life, basketball," said Jackson at Canberra’s Australian Institute of Sport, where her team-mates are attending their first pre-Olympic camp.

"Two years ago I hurt my knee playing in China; it wasn’t a terrible injury but it was enough - I pulled my meniscus out of the root of my bone.

"I didn’t think it was a big deal, nobody did.

"My knee ended up degenerating really, really fast, I got arthritis pretty quickly and since then I’ve had multiple surgeries."

She added: "It breaks my heart that I can't be there [in Rio].

"But I will be there supporting them [the Opals national team] in spirit and I know that they are going to get gold."

Jackson first represented Australia as a 14-year-old in the under-20s side before joining the national team at the age of 16.

The 6 feet 4 inches star was the first non-American and the youngest woman to be named Most Valuable Player in the US's Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) league in 2003 when she was with Seattle Storm.

Jackson won the accolade on three occasions with the most recent coming in 2010.

"When I first saw Lauren and what she could do on the basketball court, I knew she was someone special," Basketball Australia's high-performance general manager Jan Stirling, a former Opals head coach, said in a statement.

"Throughout all of her accomplishments she has remained humble and through a 19-year commitment to the Opals, she never missed a major event."

Jackson spent her entire WNBA career with Seattle Storm, helping lead them to titles in 2004 and 2010, but had not played a full season since 2010.

Her total points tally of 6,007 puts her sixth in the all-time WNBA rankings with her 2,447 rebounds and 586 blocks putting her eighth and third respectively in those categories.

She leads Seattle Storms’ all-time rankings in each of the three categories with arguably her best match for the team coming in a then-WNBA single-game scoring record of 47 points in Washington in July 2007.  

"I believe Lauren is the most dominant player the WNBA has ever seen," Seattle Storm coach Jenny Boucek said.

"I was fortunate to be around her for many years and every day we were in awe of something she would do on the court.

"We are grateful for her incredible impact on the franchise, the city of Seattle and the game."

Jackson came close to retiring in January after being hospitalised with a knee infection following surgery, and was also released from her Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) contract with the Canberra Capitals, having played just six games in five years.

Australia’s London 2012 flagbearer has also played in China with Heilongjiang Shenda as well as for South Korean side Samsung Bichumi, Spanish outfit Ros Casares Valencia and Russian team Spartak Moscow Region with whom she won two EuroLeague titles.