Dan Leo playing for Samoa© (Photo by Harry Engels/Getty Images)

Dan Leo has announced his retirement from international rugby, meaning he will miss out on appearing for Samoa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Leo, 32, recently suggested Samoa could lose up to 13 members of their squad as clubs put pressure on players to refuse international call-ups in order to seal new contracts.

The former London Irish forward, who will join London Welsh next term, has claimed that Pacific Islanders would face losing up to half their salaries from club contracts if they chose to represent their nations at the World Cup.

Leo has claimed pressuring players into international retirement was standard practice for clubs across Europe - citing the case of tighthead prop Census Johnston at Toulouse.

"There's no hints or beating around the bush, they come out and say 'stop playing for your country'," said Leo earlier in May. "Almost every Pacific Island player I have spoken to has had pressure put on them to retire [from international rugby].

"If everyone could speak as openly as I do, they would say the same thing. Everyone is getting those pressures put on them. When they are negotiating a deal with the clubs, they will say 'we will give you this bit more if you don't play for your country'.

"Census is our most experienced player and by far our best tight-head. So if you take out a player like him, Paul Williams and myself, who are three guys coming out of contract, that's a massive leadership drain on the squad. How do you replace that?

"That's a very real thing for our management to deal with, hence they have named a 58-man training squad for the World Cup. Out of those 58, 12 or 13 will have their contracts coming up. If they decide to stay at their clubs then we lose a third of our [World Cup] squad."

Leo earned 39 caps for Samoa and three for the Pacific Islanders. He played in the 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cup.

The second-row also enjoyed spells at Wasps, as well as Bordeaux Begles and Perpignan in France.