'Will I miss it?', 'how will it affect me?' - these are just some of the questions that Kieron Dyer asked himself when he took the decision to hang up his boots following a 17-year career in football.
While some professionals struggle to let go of the 'beautiful game', the 34-year-old, who played for Ipswich Town, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers, has told Sports Mole that he is "enjoying" his free time after calling it quits following a four-month stint at Middlesbrough.
Despite only retiring a matter of months ago, Dyer has already set his sights on coaching, but don't expect the former midfielder to be vying for the elite managerial spots in the future - he is targeting a career at grassroots level.
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"I start doing my coaching badges in the New Year," said Dyer. "I've been going into Ipswich Academy and seeing how different coaches are putting on sessions and I've taken a couple of them myself with the kids, so I'll definitely be looking to do my coaching badges in the near future.
"I would get more satisfaction out of working with the kids and the youth teams because I think I would get more satisfaction out of seeing the kids go through and make it into the first team. I would rather work with children."
Before embarking on a coaching career, Dyer has been focused on honouring the legacy left by his former manager at Newcastle United Sir Bobby Robson by becoming an ambassador for Sir Bobby's Breakthrough online auction.
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With a target of £1m to raise for cancer research, Dyer, who "jumped at the chance" of getting involved, is hoping that his prize of taking two guests to next March's El Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu will help reach the total for the auction, which runs from October 10 to 27.
So, how did Dyer manage to secure such a high-profile fixture?
"I know Gareth Bale and I know his agent very well, so when Gareth signed for Madrid, I was one of the first on the phone and ordered three tickets for the Madrid versus Barcelona game at Madrid," he revealed. "Then when I was asked what kind of prize I could donate, I thought I would take two lucky winners to Madrid to watch the game.
"I thought it would be a good prize - not many people get to go there and you never know, we might be able to see some of the best players in the world after the game. I've got a lot of contacts in the game and other sports so it's just making phone calls and asking certain sports stars to donate prizes.
"I'm doing a lot of media work and encouraging fans and people to donate different prizes because every little helps and we're trying to raise £1m. We've got over 200 auction prizes at the moment, but we need a lot more, so hopefully we'll achieve our goal. We are quietly confident - it's going to take a lot of work, but over 20 to 30 days, we've got every chance of doing it."
One of the major draws of the prize is to see Madrid's world-record £85m signing Gareth Bale in action alongside former Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo. The Welshman is yet to make his home debut since making the move from Tottenham Hotspur, but Dyer is confident that the 24-year-old will soon be terrorising opponents in La Liga.
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"He hasn't had a pre-season at the moment, so he's nowhere near match fit, so he's behind probably all of the players there in terms of fitness," said Dyer. "Once he gets a few games under his belt we'll see a fully fit Gareth Bale and causing havoc no doubt. He's a very humble person, he's got people around him, I'm sure Real Madrid will have everything sorted for him.
"They just want him to concentrate on his football so they'll have people who will sort out properties for him, sort out an interpreter for him, language lessons. He's got a young child at the moment, so they'll sort out nurseries for him. They'll have all the right people around him to make it as easy as possible for him. All he can do is concentrate on producing on the pitch."
While you could argue that Bale's career is only just taking off, it's a contrast to Dyer, who burst onto the scene at Ipswich in 1996 before making 251 appearances for Newcastle United following his arrival in 1999.
An impressive spell led him to the 2002 World Cup with England and the European Championships two years later, but unfortunately for the midfielder, injuries marred his latter years in the game, resulting in just 25 starts in the past six seasons.
The turning point for Dyer came in August 2007 when he suffered a double leg fracture while playing for West Ham in a League Cup tie against Bristol Rovers after being given the option to play. His time out on the sidelines has often left him wondering, 'what might have been?'.
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"Injuries are part and parcel of football but I think I had more than my fair share of injuries, that's the only real regret," said Dyer. "When I broke my leg for West Ham, I was given the option to play in that game, and I decided that I wanted to play. I always look back and think, 'if I didn't play in that game, how would it have gone?'. I missed probably the prime of my career because of that game, but obviously injuries are part and parcel and you have to take the rough with the smooth.
"[I don't think I retired too early]. I just didn't have the hunger to go on anymore, and if I'd carried on, I would have just been cheating the club I would have signed for."
One of Dyer's former clubs Newcastle made headlines over the summer following the appointment of Joe Kinnear as director of football. Despite the 66-year-old's objective to recruit new talent, the North-East outfit struggled to bring in a host of new faces to St James' Park.
"Mike Ashley owns the football club and he can choose to run it how he wants," insists Dyer. "I don't think it's all that doom and gloom. I think Newcastle had a pretty bad season last season because of a number of injuries - they were missing Fabricio Coloccini for a number of months during that season and they didn't have a fully fit Hatem Ben Arfa. Demba Ba left midway through the season, so you're talking four or five of their best players.
"Obviously Cabaye's staying now, Ben Arfa's fully fit, they've got Loic Remy replacing Demba, and they've got Coloccini back. People forget two years ago they were challenging for a Champions League place.
"Those players are the key to it and if they keep them fit, then I'd see Newcastle being a force this season. Will they qualify for Europe? That'll be very hard, but they'll be in the top half of the table no doubt."
While keeping track of the Magpies, Dyer, who has 33 Three Lions caps to his name, has also waded into the debate following the comments made by Football Association chairman Greg Dyke, who has accused there of being too many foreign players in the Premier League, stifling the development of the England national team.
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"Prices for English players are just sky high," said Dyer. "The Jordan Hendersons of the world - you have Liverpool buying him for around £20m and then you look at Newcastle - they get Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa for £6m or £7m.
"Clubs are businesses and the clubs want to make as much money as they want and do as well as they want, so they're not going to be giving kids chances or spending money on English players when they can get foreigners for so cheap and probably of better quality.
"It is [a problem], but again, it's a tricky situation because we've probably got the best league in the world, but we've probably only got the best league in the world because of all the foreign players. If you took the top 40 best players in Premier League history, 75% of them would be foreign players. That's the harsh reality."
Some scoffed at Dyke's claim that England should be vying for World Cup glory in the 2022 tournament, but he believes that the Three Lions should not be written off just yet.
"You never can tell, you just have to look at Spain," added Dyer. "Spain are dominating football now, but they were terrible in major tournaments for a number of years. They probably got more stick than England!
"They used to struggle to make quarter-finals in major tournaments all the way through and then they hit a purple patch and in that time we haven't hit a purple patch. We can do what Spain are doing - you never know."
To register for Sir Bobby's Breakthrough online auction visit www.sirbobbysbreakthrough.com
Danielle Joynson
