It is hard enough when the music stops for a sports person in their mid-30s, the time when many such careers grind to a halt, so imagine how it feels for those who see their hopes and dreams end a decade or so early.
Imagine how it feels after the media interviews have all been done, attention goes elsewhere and reality sets in that real life has to be faced, perhaps suddenly and unexpectedly.
Let’s call such a prospect daunting.
Read more: The suffering a Welsh rugby favourite endured before being told his career was prematurely over
Ex-Wales and Ospreys wing Eli Walker, who had to quit at the age of 25 because of injury, told WalesOnline afterwards his rugby career ended: “I can look back now and say it was the hardest time of my life.
“I had a one-year-old child as a single parent having split with my partner; I had a mortgage to pay and I didn’t have any income.
“It was a ridiculously difficult situation that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
“Some days I’d wake and think for a split-second: ‘I’m not going into work, I’m not going to do this and I’m not going to do that.’
“I’d think of hiding away.”
Walker credited rugby for prompting him to make the effort in his new life, having equipped him with the discipline and competitive spirit to pick himself up and go again.
When we spoke to him, he was about to pick up a master’s degree from Cardiff Met University and had launched his own construction company. It was life-affirming to talk to him.
Scott Otten became the latest player from the Ospreys to have time called early on his playing days. It happened in the spring after a painful neck injury picked up midway through the season. He was just 26.
For him, there was the consolation that a safety net was already in place in the shape of a business, SO Coffee, that he set up during his time as a player.
But, still, the psychological challenge of seeing an identity ripped away was something that needed to be dealt with.
“With me, I’ve been so busy with the business that I haven’t had much time to think about it,” says Otten.
“We’ve been through a rebranding process, have new products and new people on board and have built new relationships.
“I guess the business allowed me to step away from thinking about what’s happened with the rugby. Then I worried for a while that could have been dangerous.
“There have been a few wobbly days, I’ll be honest with you, not knowing what to think or what my identity was any more.
“But you have to try to deal with it and it’s been good to see the business clicking in recent weeks.”
When Otten finished he spoke of the ‘gut-wrenching and cruel’ end to his sporting dreams.
In season 2019-20, he was the only Welsh player named in the Conference A Guinness PRO14 team of the season. The words accompanying his selection ran: “The 25-year-old hooker is the sole Ospreys player to make the cut and deservedly so.
“With 84 lineouts won, 79 carries and a couple of tries to his name, he has been a star for the Welsh outfit.”
Mobile and dynamic around the field, with a signature chip and chase, it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that he’d put himself in contention for a Wales squad call.
But he’s made a point of trying not to cling onto such thoughts.
“I don’t think about what might have been,” he says.
“If I start thinking I could have been this, I could have been that, then that wouldn’t be good at all.
“As it is, I’m an over-thinker, something which affected me as a kid with my anxiety.
“I learned to deal with it and gradually came across as a different person.
Scott Otten in action against Racing 92
“That’s how I’ve been since.
“So I don’t think I could have done this or I could have done that, or I could still be doing this. I try to avoid that because it’s not going to make a positive difference to my life.”
Otten continued: “I guess I take the view that I’m proud to have achieved what I did in the game.
“I played over a hundred times for my home region, made some great friends and had memorable experiences.
“Not everyone can say they’ve done that.
“It was difficult at the start to accept I’d have to finish. People were telling me what I’d done and what I’d achieved. I understood what they were saying, but it was hard to feel that way.
“But I did get there, and my thoughts are still that if someone offered me one Ospreys cap as a youngster and I didn’t have any, then I’d take it.
“So I’ve settled things a bit.”
Otten stays in touch with his old pals at the Ospreys.
“I speak to the boys a fair bit,” he says. “I’ve taken up golf and play out of the same club that a few of the boys play out of, so I see them quite regularly.
“It’s great.
“They are living the life I used to live.
“My life is different now but it’s good to speak to them, to check in and make sure they’re all OK.
“The support from the boys is still there.”
This writer once spoke with a Wales international who’d seen his career cut short three years earlier. The chap in question was still cut up about how events had turned out, and understandably so.
Otten, then, has done exceptionally well under challenging circumstances.
But there are things he misses.
“Sometimes, you are on your own in business,” he says.
“When you are part of a sports team trying to achieve something you’ve all got each other’s back and you all have the same vision.
Former Ospreys hooker Scott Otten
(Image: Scott Otten/Instagram)
“It can be difficult on your own.
“You have a vision and you go for it, but you want to share that vision.
“At the Ospreys, the board, the coaches and the more senior boys all understood what was trying to be achieved, and as players you follow the vision and become a part of it.
“That is what I’d like for my business eventually.
“We plan to take on people in the new year and push on.
“I want people to feel part of a common goal and work towards achieving it.
“It’s a motivation of mine, to give the business the kind of feel I had in rugby.
“I want the culture of my business to be like a sports team.
“My girlfriend, who helps run things with me, is brilliant.
“Hopefully, anyone who works for the company with buy into the culture we are trying to set in place.
“I don’t want the people I employ to just take the money, go home but not be happy to work for me.
“I enjoyed what I experienced in rugby and I think people who are happy in their work deliver the best performances.”
Spoken like a true businessman.
Life has changed a lot for Scott Otten.
But he’s dealing with it.
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