Former Sussex and Surrey all-rounder Rory Hamilton-Brown has "absolutely no idea" how his post-cricket career will work out - but admits his ongoing injury troubles left him with little choice but to retire.
Hamilton-Brown this month called a halt to his playing days aged just 27, having failed to recover to his satisfaction from a ruptured ligament in his left wrist which required surgery and ended his 2014 season in late June.
Speaking exclusively to ecb.co.uk, he said:"I'd struggled with it for a little while and it wasn't fair on the team, or for me, to try and bat and go at 60 or 70 per cent, because I just wouldn't be able to get to the levels I needed.
"I had two operations in the middle of the season hoping that I'd be able to get back to somewhere near 100 per cent but it's unfortunately never going to be back to where it needs to be.
"It was not really an option. I'd worked hard through the winter to try and get it right and it just wasn't going to work out. We gave it every chance we could but that's just how it ended up."
The injury limited Hamilton-Brown to just seven first-class games in 2014 and only two half-centuries, backed up by a top score of 49 in his 10 NatWest T20 Blast appearances.
That was his second season back at Sussex, the county where he had initially made his name as a swashbuckling batsman and useful off-spinner and won three limited-overs trophies before returning aged 22 to his first home of Surrey.
Coach Chris Adams, who was making the same move, had head-hunted him for the captaincy despite his tender age and Hamilton-Brown's second spell at Surrey brought him, in 2011, a 1,000-run first-class season as well as a third 40-over title kick-started by his innings of 78 in the final.
But the tragic death of his best friend and team-mate Tom Maynard in June 2012 was a painful experience which eventually led Hamilton-Brown to give up the captaincy and return to Hove.
"It did change things for me," he admits, emotion obvious in his voice even now.
"I tried to throw myself into it as much as I could, I gave everything I could to make it a success, but for whatever reason it didn't work out.
"But there's absolutely no regrets, I gave everything while I was there, it's just a shame it didn't work out."
While many players make the move into coaching or umpiring after retirement, that was never in Hamilton-Brown's thoughts.
"No, I was always keen to have two careers," he said.
"I hadn't done any coaching stuff, but then obviously I didn't anticipate retiring quite as young so I had to make the decision pretty quickly. I'd always seen myself as wanting to go into business after cricket so it seemed a natural progression for me.
"Through the time I had the injury I couldn't do much apart from my rehab so I did an internship at a company called D&G Asset Management, and I've started full-time now in the same company."
Asked what that means for the future, he laughs: "I've absolutely no idea!
"I've always had an interest in property, my family have been involved in property, and I'm working in real estate and residential property at the moment.
"It's really important to do a lot of learning, and to get used to doing a commute and the nine-to-five - the commute is probably the toughest part of the lot, to be honest with you!"
As he enters an unfamiliar new world, Hamilton-Brown has fond memories to look back on from his cricketing career.
"The highlight would probably be winning the one-day competition at Lord's with Surrey, with that young side, that was brilliant," he recalls.
"We won three trophies with Sussex as well and lost in a Lord's final. There's nothing better than playing in a team that plays well and you have success, playing in those big games in a team where you've worked hard to get to the final stages."
One such event was the Twenty20 Cup in 2009, with Hamilton-Brown's off-spin bringing him 4-15 in the quarter-final win over Warwickshire to see them through to Finals Day where they beat Northamptonshire and Somerset to lift the trophy.
"Yeah, 2009, absolutely," he said. "We won a couple of Pro40s with Sussex as well (in 2008 and 2009) so there were some good days out there, definitely."