Calling it a day is a tough business

SORRY is traditionally the hardest word to say - or indeed sing - but I've always thought “Goodbye” runs it close. Saying your farewells and retiring from the sport you love is a gut-wrenching business and all sorts of players have been bowing out recently and contemplating what the future holds in store.

- BRENDAN GALLAGHER

Joe Marler suddenly left us mid-season while seemingly still fit and healthy while Anthony Watson had to give second best to chronic injury. Meanwhile, other massive England figures like Danny Care, Alex Goode, Mike Brown, Dan Cole, and Ben Youngs are yielding to the march of time as is Welsh legend Dan Biggar while stalwart warriors such as Sale’s Tommy Taylor, Yann Thomas at Bristol and Bath’s Ruaridh McConnochie are doing likewise. We wish them all well.

Timing is important of course, as is going on your own terms. As Groucho Marx once accurately observed: “The one thing I want to do before I quit is retire!” There’s a huge difference.

We should, however, never be blasé about individuals retiring from their chosen vocation at an age when most people have barely begun theirs. It seems against the natural order of things, and the biggest challenges will almost always be mental rather than physical or financial.

I know a few former sportsmen, some of them pretty big names as it happens, who are outwardly doing pretty well but inwardly are struggling and fighting the good fight.

The thing to always bear in mind is that sports stars have already given their very best shot at the thing they were best at in this world and replicating the joy of that process and the camaraderie and good fellowship experienced en route can be nigh on impossible. And that leaves a hole that almost no job or material success in other fields can fill.