Finally free of the pressures of being a professional footballer that used to mess with his head, the former Knights playmaker now goes off to work each day as an apprentice electrician with a smile on his face after walking away from the NRL.

For the first time, Lamb has opened up about his battles with his mental health at the start of pre-season training late last year after he had just joined the Parramatta Eels on a two year deal that led to him having to make some big decisions about his playing career.

At the time, he was mentally shot and could feel himself getting worse.

"I knew I wasn't right and mentally, I was in a pretty bad space," Lamb told us this week. "I just wasn't myself at all and I didn't want to end up getting worse and start treating the people I love like crap. I wanted to get on top of it straight away.

"I'd never felt like that before. I've always been a happy-go-lucky sort of person but I started to feel a bit crappy.

"I didn't even want to get out of bed - didn't want to get up to go to training which I'd never felt before, I've always loved training. I wasn't myself, that's for sure."

It took the 23-year-old just a week of training to realise how depressed he'd become. But it had been building up for more than six months.

"I just think it was a combination of living the way I'd been living," he said. "Leaving home and moving to Sydney, then moving to London and moving back home and then back to Sydney again.

"I was not living a good life. It was just on and off, in different spots, in and out of teams, going back and forth. It sort of built up over half a year or more and I wasn't dealing with it.

"I came back home from London at the end of last season and there were supposedly some other opportunities over there and here after I got back that fell through.

"To be honest, I was happy to be home and I already had my head wrapped around just staying back here and playing footy at Maitland.

"Then I got thrown this deal at Parramatta and I thought at the time taking it was the right thing to do. I'm a footy player, I should chase it. But as soon as I got down there, I just wasn't right."

An outstanding young local talent, Lamb played Australian Schoolboys at the end of 2014 while in the Knights junior system and less than 18 months later, debuted in the NRL at 19 under coach Nathan Brown at the start of the much-publicised re-build in 2016.

"It was pretty crazy at the time - an awesome feeling because it was always the goal to play first grade," he said. "I probably didn't feel it then but there was obviously a lot of pressure that went with all that.

"Like I said, I didn't feel it at the start but it came along gradually the more you played. The expectation grew."

In his 32 NRL games with the Knights, there were more than a few glimpses of the player Brown and the club hoped Lamb would development into. But his toughness and physicality in defence was often questioned and there is little doubt he suffered because of the lack of experience around him.

When the Knights signed halfback Mitchell Pearce and Connor Watson was recruited to play five-eighth in 2018, the writing was on the wall for Lamb.

He linked with the Sydney Roosters for 2019 with ironically, his only top grade game for the premiers coming off the bench in a mid-season hiding from the Knights on his old home ground. A few weeks later, he was in England, playing out the season with the London Broncos.

"I'm definitely enjoying life a lot more now being closer to family and friends," he said. "I'm feeling like a different person to what I was. A lot more relaxed and easy going."

As for those who say at 23, he has wasted a great opportunity, Lamb says:

"Some people think that it's a massive deal and I'm letting go of this big opportunity. But the bottom line is I just want to be happy and live a life that I'm happy with.

"Not many people can say they have ticked off a goal in life. I wanted to play in the NRL and I did that and now I can chase some other goals. I'm pretty stoked to be able to say I've done what I've done to be honest."