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Gary O’Neil admits he has struggled to adjust to life without football after leaving Bolton Wanderers.
Last season’s player of the year says he is now in “semi-retirement” after failing to find a new club since the summer.
O’Neil, 36, was one of the few playing highlights of last season’s relegation from the Championship and he had been recommended for a coaching position by former boss Phil Parkinson in the new set-up.
But after a minor injury meant he was not around for the latter end of pre-season he has been unable to get back into football ever since.
“I have found this year very difficult because I wasn’t planning to stop,” he told TalkSport.
“I’m fortunate to always have been very fit and seen players play until they were 40, and thought that would be me, I’d keep going.
“I left Bolton and picked up an injury while trying to keep fit, now I have sort of semi-retired and I wasn’t prepared for it. I’ve had days where I wake up at home and think ‘what am I doing, where am I going to go, where am I heading now?’ “I always had a purpose before and that was to be ready for Saturday, to do the best for the team, but now I wake up and think ‘I’ve got that radio thing next week’ but it isn’t the same.
“It doesn’t replace that feeling of going in every day with the lads, trying to achieve something for the fans, for the club, so I have struggled with it, I have to be honest, and I haven’t spoken to too many footballers who don’t struggle with it initially. It’s a very difficult time when you stop playing.
“This situation that the lads are in, locked down at home, is similar in ways to the experience you have when you stop playing. So I hope they all deal with it OK and come out the other side of it and we all get back to enjoying the fantastic game, fans included because I am sure they are missing it as well. It’s an escape for them.”
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Last season’s player of the year says he is now in “semi-retirement” after failing to find a new club since the summer.
O’Neil, 36, was one of the few playing highlights of last season’s relegation from the Championship and he had been recommended for a coaching position by former boss Phil Parkinson in the new set-up.
But after a minor injury meant he was not around for the latter end of pre-season he has been unable to get back into football ever since.
“I have found this year very difficult because I wasn’t planning to stop,” he told TalkSport.
“I’m fortunate to always have been very fit and seen players play until they were 40, and thought that would be me, I’d keep going.
“I left Bolton and picked up an injury while trying to keep fit, now I have sort of semi-retired and I wasn’t prepared for it. I’ve had days where I wake up at home and think ‘what am I doing, where am I going to go, where am I heading now?’ “I always had a purpose before and that was to be ready for Saturday, to do the best for the team, but now I wake up and think ‘I’ve got that radio thing next week’ but it isn’t the same.
“It doesn’t replace that feeling of going in every day with the lads, trying to achieve something for the fans, for the club, so I have struggled with it, I have to be honest, and I haven’t spoken to too many footballers who don’t struggle with it initially. It’s a very difficult time when you stop playing.
“This situation that the lads are in, locked down at home, is similar in ways to the experience you have when you stop playing. So I hope they all deal with it OK and come out the other side of it and we all get back to enjoying the fantastic game, fans included because I am sure they are missing it as well. It’s an escape for them.”
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