He may have hung up his boots at the end of last season, but Cherries legend, Steve Fletcher is finding retirement tougher than he was expecting.
Speaking in the Bournemouth Evening Echo the record appearance maker for the Cherries is quoted as saying: "I spoke to lots of ex-players and they told me it would be a shock to the system. I know everyone is different but I didn’t realise just how hard it would be. It really hit me on the opening day of the season when I went to watch Birmingham play Watford. For the first time in 25 years, I wasn’t involved as a player in the first game of the season. I was sitting with the other scouts when I was overcome by it all. I had to take myself to one side and I shed a few tears. It was heartbreaking. I spoke to Neil Young about it and he said something similar had happened to him. He emigrated to Australia after he had retired and went missing on the first day of the season because he just couldn’t get his head around it. It was hard not being in and around the changing room and instead being 200 miles away in Birmingham. It is something you have to come to terms with because nobody is going to wave a magic wand. If you drop out of professional football at an early age, you always think you can get back in. You can’t at 41 though. That’s it and my playing days are over. Once I had made the decision to retire, there was no going back. I have been dealing with it in my own way. I am very fortunate to have had the strength of my wife, two daughters and some very good friends to help me through. You need people like that when you are sad and low".