Essendon recruit Mal Michael says concern his hectic lifestyle was affecting his health caused him to pull the pin on his AFL career with Brisbane.
Speaking after training with the Bombers for the first time, the former Lions triple-premiership player said his desire to play football never flagged.
But he said the combination of a fulltime training regimen with Brisbane and his work setting up the charitable Mal Michael Foundation in his native Papua New Guinea took an unbearable toll.
"I always wanted to play football, I was just not prepared to do what I was doing and play football," Michael said.
"My health was suffering.
"The last season, training every day and doing my personal business commitments, I wasn't going to bed until 3am each morning, so I wasn't prepared to do that again.
"I don't know how I lasted.
"I got to round 15 last year and I was ready to retire then, because I was just absolutely rooted, basically.
"That's pretty much where the decision to retire came from."
Michael said he now felt more refreshed than at any stage during his previous 10 seasons - four with Collingwood and six with Brisbane - because of the extended break his "retirement" gave him.
"Usually when you go on holidays at the end of each season subconsciously you keep thinking you have to be back for pre-season," he said.
"For me ... I went away and I just felt really good, refreshed.
"It was the first time I've ever felt like that ... the first time in 10 years that I've had that feeling."
Michael said the Bombers' training schedule would allow him to work for his foundation while leading a normal life.
The club will also grant him time off whenever his non-football work requires him to visit PNG.
"Hopefully I'll only be gone for 24 hours, 48 maybe," he said.
"I'm trying to schedule all that early in the week so it won't clash with games on the weekend and I'll try to make myself available for all 22 games plus finals."
Michael, who only briefly joined his new teammates on the track before heading to the swimming pool, said he had several months of catch-up work to do on his fitness.
He said he had ill-feeling towards the Lions and urged the club to get over its disappointment about the manner in which he left.
"Twelve years ago I sat in their offices when I was a 17-year-old and they said they weren't going to draft me and they didn't want me," he said.
"So it's a little bit ironic that 12 years later they're a little bit angry that I left the club.
"So everyone moves on in life and I'm hoping that they'll do the same as well."
