Donncha O'Callaghan plans to retire from rugby at the end of the season.
The Munster legend, now aged 38, is currently playing his third season with Aviva Premiership side Worcester Warriors. O'Callaghan joined the club after he left Munster in 2015.
Last week, O'Callaghan spoke about the increasing levels of physicality in rugby and how when he now steps off the pitch, he's glad to still be in one piece.
Quoted by John Fallon for The Times, O'Callaghan said he wants to retire with the chances of fully enjoying life with his family still intact.
I am done. It’s been great. I have had a great time. I love the game and I want to finish loving it.
I’d love to be able to walk away from it and say I had a great time within it and be thankful to the game itself. I just look at my own crew, guys like Denis Leamy who is after getting a hip operation. I have four small kids, I want to be running around with them having fun, I don’t want to be stuck in goal in a five-a-side. You want to finish the game fit, healthy and well. You want to be active.
When he hangs up his boots in May, the Corkman will have ticked into his 39th year and the 20th of his professional rugby career. Like Peter Stringer - another former Munster player with remarkable longevity - O'Callaghan has cited being a teetotaller as one of the reasons as to why he has endured in the game for so long.
Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE
