Dwain Chambers' former team-mate Jamie Baulch says he fears the shamed 100m star will struggle to find fresh success on the track.
Chambers is set to return to sprinting after unsuccessful spells in American football and rugby league.
"It is hard for him now at the age of 30 as he hasn't got that much time left in athletics," Baulch told BBC Sport.
"I don't know what he is going to do, has he got other skills or is he going to end up working in a coffee shop?"
Chambers, who served a two-year ban after failing a drugs test in 2003, failed to land a rugby league contract with Castleford rugby earlier this week following a month's trial.
The sprinter's doping past means he is banned by the British Olympic Association from competing at this summer's Games in Beijing.
And despite winning a silver medal in the 60m at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year, many athletics promoters have made it clear he will not be welcome at their meetings.
"Obviously every time he steps on the track now his reputation is very, very tarnished"
"Obviously every time he steps on the track now his reputation is very, very tarnished," said Baulch, a former Olympic and world championship 4x400m relay silver medallist who also won relay gold at the European championships in 1998 and 2002.
"From that point of view I feel sorry for him as he is being made this target and a scapegoat.
"But just because he can't compete at the Olympics doesn't mean he can't make money out of the sport.
"You don't necessarily make your money at the Olympics, you make it at Grands Prix and he can still do well in that circuit. But at the same time, he will find it tough to gain invites to these meetings.
"Away from athletics most athletes make money out of sponsorship and no company is going to want to be endorsed by a drugs cheat.
"Dwain took the risk of cheating and he has to deal with that. He only has himself to blame."
Welshman Baulch has first-hand experience of how hard the sport of rugby league is as he is a sprint coach for the Bradford Bulls.
And he always knew that Chambers's hopes of making a career in rugby league were fanciful.
He said: "It didn't work in American football and it didn't work in rugby league.
"I would never quit track and field and pick up a tennis racquet and expect to play in the next Wimbledon, it just doesn't work like that.
"I think he hoped his speed would have got him through but they would have targeted him and they would have hurt him.
"These guys are professionals and have been doing it since the age of five or six. You can't expect to step into a sport and do brilliantly straight away, you need time and Dwain doesn't have that.
"Yes, he has speed and talent, but he couldn't run with the ball, and catch the ball and take the hits."
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Baulch now how has a number of different companies, including a management agency, and the former 400m star has also just been appointed director of performance for Welsh Athletics.
He added: "If Dwain was my client he would be off my books, I wouldn't want someone of that ilk associated to my company and I'm not just saying that.
"The guy is a lovely guy, he is nice person but what he did makes him an idiot.
"There may be other possibilities such as television, but he is now tarnished and I can't think of of any TV shows that would want him on."
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