Pope Francis admitted Saturday he needs to slow down, telling reporters after a six-day trip to Canada that he cannot maintain his pace of international travel — and may have to think about retiring.

“I don’t think I can go at the same pace as I used to travel,” said the 85-year-old pope, who suffers pain in his knee that has seen him increasingly reliant on a wheelchair.

“I think that at my age and with this limitation, I have to save myself a little bit to be able to serve the Church. Or, alternatively, to think about the possibility of stepping aside.”

It is not the first time Francis has raised the possibility of following the example set by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who quit over his own failing health in 2013, and is now living quietly in Vatican City.

In 2014, a year into his papacy, Francis told reporters that if his health got in the way of his functions as pope, he would consider stepping down.

In May, as reported in the Italian media, Francis joked about his knee during a closed-door meeting with bishops, saying: “Rather than operate, I’ll resign.”

“The door is open, it’s one of the normal options, but up until now I haven’t knocked on this door,” he said Saturday.

“But that doesn’t mean the day after tomorrow I don’t start thinking, right? But right now I honestly don’t.

“Also this trip was a little bit the test. It is true that you cannot make trips in this state, you have to maybe change the style a little bit, decrease, pay off the debts of the trips you still have to make, rearrange.

“But the Lord will tell. The door is open, that is true.”