Joey Barton has insisted that he is feeling "really optimistic about the future", but admits that a return to the playing field may be out of the question.
The 34-year-old was this week released by Burnley, one month on from being handed a prolonged ban for breaching betting rules put in place by the Football Association.
Former Manchester City and Rangers midfielder Barton still has 17 months left to run on his suspension and is unsure whether he has it in him to make a comeback, although with an appeal pending he is not yet giving up hope.
"You can work in six-month windows, you can potentially work in 12-month windows but if it's 18 months - that's the better part of 60, 70 football matches," he told Sky Sports News.
"It makes it really difficult and certainly at the age that I'm at, it makes it incredibly difficult. It makes it an even better story should you have the audacity to pull it off.
"But I've always said that I don't think football will define me. Well I'm going to find out over the next 18 months whether that is the case and whether my character stands the test of that.
"I'm really optimistic about the future, there is more to life than being a footballer and I'm really looking forward to finding out about that."
Barton spent just three months with Burnley in his second spell with the club, before being charged with placing 1,260 bets on matches between 2006 and 2013.
Daniel Lewis
