One of the major difficulties that retired athletes have to face is dealing and paying for medical treatment after their careers are over. with football for example, it is a very violent sport and can leave players with long term impairments that require a lot of expensive treatments after their careers are over. In addition to this, retired players are more susceptible to want to self medicate (by abusing drugs) in order to cope with the injuries that they have sustained throughout the many years of playing their given sport.
The transition from being a full time athlete to becoming a retired athlete is also very difficult. Most of these players have to retire relatively early and when they do, most don't have a hard set plan as to what they are going to do with the rest of their lives. They essentially go from making millions of dollars one day to potentially having to work minimum wage the next day depending on when their money runs out (and for a lot of them it is fairly quick because of the expensive taste that is acquired after making so much money during their careers). The flashy lifestyle that athletes live nowadays is so ingrained in the culture that it sets them up for losing all of the money that they made during their career
Also, the way that sports are, you never know when your last day is going to be. Whether it be an injury or your team decides to drop you, the way that sports are make it very unstable.
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