SENIOR Parramatta players fear troubled halfback Tim Smith has played his last NRL game after he told them yesterday he had bipolar disorder before quitting the club indefinitely.

The players had just finished a weights session in the Parramatta Stadium gym about 11.30am and were about to hussle into a video session when coach Michael Hagan told them their halfback "wanted to say something".

An emotional Smith told his teammates he was finding it hard to keep the disorder "under control" and stood himself down from the squad. But there are genuine feelings among the players and Hagan that the No.7 has played his last match.

Just over two hours later, Smith read a statement to the media in which he declared he had the disorder which also afflicts retired superstar - and a mentor of Smith's - Andrew Johns, and would be taking time-out immediately. Smith left with his manager and yesterday afternoon flew to the Gold Coast to stay with his parents.

Asked yesterday if he feared Smith would not return, Parramatta's Test and Origin second-rower Nathan Hindmarsh said: "I'd like to see him back, but to tell you the truth, I really don't know. It's just up to him now - how he handles it all."

"That's a matter for him," was all Hagan would say.

Smith said he had suffered from bipolar depression for 18 months and had been taking medication, however, the club was quick to insist that no "incidents" played a role in the decision for him to stand down. The 23-year-old had a stint in a Gold Coast rehabilitation centre last December after the latest in a string of alcohol-fuelled misdemeanours.

In recent months, Smith has been mentored by Johns, who only seven months ago revealed he suffered from bipolar disorder. It followed an arrest in London for possessing ecstasy and a subsequent confession that he had taken drugs throughout his career.

Johns has been helping to coach Smith and the Eels and only last Saturday, it is believed Smith was with his mentor at Rosehill racecourse. Just two months earlier, Smith told Johns in an interview that he had considered quitting before.

"When I thought about it, if I didn't have footy then I wouldn't have too much else going on. But I had a good, long think about what I should do and I know I've made the right choice," Smith said then.

Hagan, Johns's former coach at Newcastle, said yesterday that Smith had "spoken to [Johns] a fair bit in recent times, but I'm not sure if he's spoken to him in the last day or two".

"In the end, he's made the decision that's best for him."

That decision came sometime at the weekend. Those close to Smith got the first inkling something was up on Saturday. He stayed with a friend that night and then phoned his manager David Riolo on Sunday night, telling him he wanted to go home.

Riolo rang Hagan, and it was decided after a hastily convened meeting yesterday morning that Smith would be given indefinite time off, starting with Friday night's clash with Manly.

In a typed A4 statement, Smith said he was not using the disorder "as an excuse for anything that has happened in the past or my decision today, however, I am not coping with the constant media pressure and public scrutiny". He did not answer questions.

After returning in round three following off-season shoulder surgery, Smith has been the subject of intense criticism, which Hagan described as "extremely unfair". Still, the Herald understands Eels officials privately concede Smith returned too soon.

Hindmarsh added: "We thought he was going all right … he told us he just needed to sort some stuff out, and we totally understand. There are more important things in life than football."

The man who brought Smith to the Eels and developed him, Newcastle coach Brian Smith, said he hoped "some of the more outspoken people in our footy community might learn a lesson from this".

"Quite often players are suffering from some issues and at times they're at the butt-end of some really harsh criticism that fails to understand that simple thing, that they're young men and they have day-to-day problems like everybody else," Brian Smith told the Newcastle Herald.

Riolo called Smith's decision "brave" but admitted his short-term future was a "work in progress".

"We can't put a time frame on these things," he said.

"Obviously, the club has to look at what's best for the club as well as what's best for Tim, as they do with all their players. And Tim's just got to get himself right."

Smith's long-term future clearly has ramifications for the club. If Smith does not return, they will be without a top-line halfback for the rest of the season, and the club will likely have to find another. The club is already facing a battle to keep Brett Finch. "They're all things we'll need to weigh up, but I don't think today or tomorrow is the right time to start thinking about it," Hagan said.

THE SMITH FILES

December 2005 He is accused, but later cleared, of assault allegations after a night out in The Rocks.

May 2006 Smith turns up to a training session intoxicated after a drinking session with hooker Mark Riddell. On the same day, coach Brian Smith quits the club. Jason Taylor becomes caretaker coach and one of his first jobs is to dump the duo to premier league and fine them $5000.

June 2006 Smith is fined $1000 after a bar-room slanging match with cricketer Michael Clarke at Cronulla nightspot Northies.

December 2007 A talkback caller starts a chain of events which leads to Smith checking into rehab. The caller complained that Smith was so drunk outside a pub in Parramatta that he abused a grandfather and a young girl. He is fined $1000 and banned from drinking until the end of 2008. Less than a fortnight later, he is found drunk in another Parramatta pub. He is spared the axe but heads to the Gold Coast for a stint in rehab. It is later revealed he suffers from depression.

April 2007 A fortnight after he returns to the NRL, he quits league indefinitely.