Jamie Devitt: Ex-Carlisle United midfielder on 'limbo' of his lost career

Carlisle United midfielder Jamie DevittGetty Images

Jamie Devitt's career with Carlisle United was ruined by injury

Jamie Devitt has opened up on the "limbo" of life after full-time football.

The 33-year-old former Carlisle, Hull, Morecambe and Barrow midfielder left Carlisle at the end of his contract in June.

The Dubliner required surgery on a hamstring tear sustained in the Cumbrians' defeat by Salford in April.

He was released and is now at Northern Premier League Workington, managed by former team-mate Danny Grainger.

Devitt has been scouting for Carlisle and has made two substitute appearances for the part-time Reds as well as helping Grainger with coaching.

In an interview with BBC Radio Cumbria, Devitt spoke frankly about the difficulties in coming to terms with the realisation that your playing career is over.

Carlisle manager Paul Simpson said in the immediate aftermath of Devitt's hamstring injury that it had left the former Republic of Ireland Under-21s international "as low as a snake's belly".

Devitt said the decision on his retirement from the full-time game was made for him when he received no offers from other clubs after the expiry of his contract.

"It's hard, it's sad. It happens to everyone but you don't realise it happens to everyone until you step out of it yourself," he said.

"You are checking your phone every day but nothing's happening. It's a harsh reality, but that's life and I've learned to deal with it a little bit better now.

"I can't say I explored the EFL but when my phone didn't ring it was an easy decision."

Despite the injury problems that dogged the final two years of his career, Devitt said the reality of life after football had not occurred to him until it happened.

"You don't realise what's around the corner, you really don't, and a lot of footballers don't plan for it.

"I didn't plan for it so I'm in a stage now where I don't know what to do or where I'm at, to be honest.

"Danny has helped me because it's given me a little bit of stability in knowing what I'm doing on certain days of the week. It's just learning to deal with a lot of things."

The two brief appearances for Workington, who are currently just outside the play-off positions, have given him some hope that his playing days are not finished, even if the professional game has left him behind.

"I'm not thinking of that at all," he said. "I've got my head around going part-time, which was really tough at the start. I've got my head round that and a few other things I'm trying to get on with as well.

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Jamie Devitt's career began with Hull City in 2008

"I've come to terms with it a little bit better than at the start.

"I'm not thinking in my head, 'I want to get back in full time.' I'm fully enjoying helping Danny with the coaching side of it as well so I'm trying to look forward.

"I've spoken to a lot of people about what I'm going to do but I'm in a limbo stage at the moment where I don't know what to do day to day, and I'm struggling doing nothing day-to-day."

The hamstring injury curtailed Devitt's season with Carlisle on the brink of the League Two play-off final at Wembley, a game in which they beat Stockport to celebrate promotion.

Missing that game made things even tougher for Devitt, he said, although he gained some comfort from passing on the knowledge from a 15-year career that also took in Chesterfield and Blackpool, as well as loan spells at Darlington, Shrewsbury, Grimsby, Bradford, Accrington, Rotherham, Morecambe and Newport County.

"I had the younger lads at Carlisle coming and asking for advice, and I really enjoyed it," he said.

"It was more when I'd done my hamstring in the Salford game, I had a lot of calls - because I wasn't in for two weeks after that - from lads asking advice.

"It made me feel better because I felt I didn't want to come back into the group at all during the play-offs because of the way I was feeling, but I felt like I needed to help them - and it helped me, massively, knowing I was probably helping them a little bit.

"It makes you feel good. It makes you feel wanted or needed, because when you come out your phone stops ringing and you're lost."

Getting back on the pitch has also helped. "It's been good. I've only played 15 minutes and 15 minutes but we'll slowly build it up that way. It was a weird feeling going back on to a pitch.

"That Salford game, in my head that was me done, but over the summer the hunger came back. I think it was seeing us, Carlisle, winning the play-off final that did it, that put a big fire back in my belly.

"I felt like I was missing something because I missed out on that game. It was my dream to play at Wembley and I've not been able to do it."

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