Simon Rodger is proving there is life after professional football, by getting off his backside and learning new skills.

A recent BBC documentary revealed how past stars such as Paul Gascoigne, Neil Webb and Neil Ruddock have struggled to come to terms with the end of their playing careers.

Rodger is coping better than most. The former Albion midfielder, forced to retire seven months ago with a serious knee injury, refuses to wallow in self-pity.

As one door closed so several others have opened for the highly motivated 33-year-old.

"I've just finished a coaching course which the Surrey FA put on and I've got the final assessment in July," Guildford-based Rodger explained.

"I am starting a personal training course in July as well. I want to get into that side of things.

"I am also doing a computer course. I quite enjoy all these courses, it's good fun. Obviously, it is so different from being a footballer and going in to train every day.

"Suddenly, you have got to get your thinking cap back on but they are new challenges.

"It's a shock at first because footballers don't know anything else, everything is done for them.

"It is such a cushy life and then suddenly you are out in the real world, fighting for a job like everyone else.

"You have just got to really push yourself on, get out there and do things, take courses. There is so much out there, you have just got to get off your backside and do it."

Rodger has other plans too. He wants to become a firefighter when the fire service starts recruiting again next year.

He also announced in The Argus last week his intention to resume his playing career at non-league level following successful further surgery on the damaged left knee which forced him to hang up his boots.

Rodger fought a year-long battle to recover from rupturing anterior cruciate ligaments in Albion's Carling Cup tie at Middlesbrough in September 2003.

When he finally bowed to the inevitable last October, months of anxiety and anguish kicked in.

"I was fighting the knee injury for so long and thinking I would be able to come back from it," he said.

"I was so stressed out. As soon as I made the decision I became really ill through all the worry.

"I got a stomach ulcer as a result of the tablets I had been taking and a chest infection. Everything just came to a head.

"But it was a big weight off my mind, knowing I could finally move on and try to start something new."

It was also a relief for Rodger's wife Alison, a presenter on the QVC television shopping channel.

"I think she is quite pleased, because she sees more of me now," he said. "She was glad I made a decision to finally call it a day.

"She could see all the stress I was under and sometimes I would take it out on her."

Of course, there are pangs of regret. How could there not be when the way you have been earning a living for so long, in Rodger's case for 15 years since signing for Albion's arch-rivals Crystal Palace as a trainee, is abruptly over.

"You have regrets because I felt I still had a few years left in me," he said. "I just miss the buzz of going into training every day, the great banter you have with the lads. I hated losing games, even in training.

"Keeping fit as well and the buzz on match day, turning up at the ground, going out for the warm-up and then going out for the game.

"That was part of my life for so long, so to suddenly call it a day was hard but you just have to move on. I had a good career and I don't miss pre-season training. That was a nightmare!"

Shoreham-born Rodger has not kicked a ball in anger since that ill-fated evening at the Riverside Stadium.

Albion were cursed by retirements last season. Centre half Dean Blackwell suffered the same injury as Rodger and now helps out with his dad's electrician business.

John Piercy, plagued by the illness colitis, is cabbying and goalkeeper Ben Roberts is travelling with his Brazilian girlfriend after persistent back problems caused him to quit.

Rodger said: "If I had been fit I could definitely have done a job for Brighton in the Championship on the left side of midfield.

"I could see they needed that left-sided player and it was frustrating. I wished I was out there trying to help the lads.

"I didn't come down and see any of their games last season but I watched all the ones that were on the telly and I was well chuffed when they stayed up, really pleased for them."

Albion's last day survival and the relegation from the Premiership of Palace, where Rodger spent 13 years, means the old adversaries will be locking horns again next season.

"I can't wait, I'm definitely going to both of those games," he said. "I'll be looking out for when they come up on the fixture list. That will be great."