Even in the modern day, with more support available, and opportunities within coaching and the media, heading off into the great unknown can be laced with obstacles and pitfalls.
The loss of a structure, the comfort blanket of being very well looked after, the constant camaraderie of being part of a thriving dressing room. Waking up the first morning after those have disappeared can take a great deal of getting used to.
Former Wolves youngster Will Randall took the brave decision to hang up his boots last summer at the age of just 28. The skilful winger, who can boast a Wembley assist and National League promotion to his name alongside three years spent at Molineux, had not suffered any serious injury or specific issue.
Still playing at a decent level in non-league, there were also several contract offers on the table.
Randall just felt that the time was right. Time to move on, and make a fresh start. But even with making a decision that was completely under his own control, he admits it was difficult.
Only now, a few months on, has he felt ready to take another big step. Going public on his new venture as an online performance coach, helping men make improvements to their physical condition and, by association, their mental health.
A decade on from first arriving at Wolves, wide-eyed and full of high hopes, he is making moves on a completely new chapter. To some extent a nervous time, but also a very exciting one.
“At the end of last season, I was still trying to fight on in terms of the football, I had dropped into non-league but was still enjoying it and had offers on the table,” says Randall.
“But I was kind of – and it feels difficult to say because I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to live my childhood dream – at a point where I wanted to choose my happiness.
“Football is such a short and often turbulent career, and I’ve been to many different clubs, that I just decided to take this step and pursue other opportunities.
“Because of the sort of career it is, it would only have been a few years when I would have probably been forced to retire and plan something new anyway!
“I just reached the stage where I wanted to do it now. It’s not that I’m not grateful for my time – I’m incredibly grateful – but it’s about getting into that whole new world outside of football.
Will Randall in 2016
“It’s about pushing into a new chapter of my life which I’m very excited about.
“I didn’t retire due to an injury or anything to do with pride or dropping down too low.
“It was literally just thinking that for over ten years I’d lived my childhood dream, but now it’s not right for me anymore, and time to take my life in a new direction.”
Randall is now taking on clients for his new vocation, with a strong ambition and determination to make it a success.
The sort of ambition and determination which first took him into the world of football, the sport he first started playing at the age of just four.
At seven, he was taken on by the academy of hometown club Swindon Town, starting another journey which so often provides a rollercoaster ride both in results and emotions.
At one point he broke his knee playing for his school. In another, around the age of 14, there were doubts whether he would be kept on.
But he was, he flourished, and at the tender age of 17 and one day, made his senior Swindon debut, coming off the bench in front of almost 9,000 at the County Ground in League One against Rotherham.
“That was an incredible day,” Randall recalls.
“I mean, nowadays you’ve got wonder kits doing a craziness even younger than I was, and maybe it felt different back then.
“I can’t put into words how nervous I was when the gaffer told me to get warm because I was coming on.
“It’s one of those great memories that football has given me, something I will certainly never forget.”
Randall made another ten senior appearances for Swindon over the following 18 months.
Still very much a eenager, all those appearances gave him positive and invaluable experience, but he also admits it should have been more.