Brian O'Driscoll joined Saturday's Off the Ball and paid tribute to his former Leinster, Ireland and Lions teammate Jamie Heaslip.
The former Irish number eight retired from rugby earlier this week after a stellar career and O'Driscoll highlighted the cruel irony which forced the stalwart to hang up his boots due to injury.
"I think it's because he was never injured in advance of that and it was so well documented," O'Driscoll told Nathan Murphy, adding: "[He was] averaging 29 games a season which for any Irish international is huge numbers.
"He was an 80 minute man and it wasn't just that - he never sat out training. He always, always trained.
"I went on two Lions Tours with him in 2009 and in 2013 and he never once got treatment from a physio in either of them!
"To not get anything done - not have a dead leg or 'I've got a bit of a tight calf' - nothing!
"He's a very tough player. He was hard - very, very hard but just durability like I've never seen.
"And, the way he plays as well - he's got footwork and he's got evasion skills so how you don't get a leg tracked somewhere or a knee ligament issue of some kind - that's not flukiness.
"Bob Stewart, one of the physios that I would have known over the last number of tours and I think he mentioned it to me in Australia that no one treated Jamie and just talking about how much of a freak he was.
"So, it's pretty ironic that he does get an innocuous career-ending injury the way he did before the England game at the Aviva last year."
Having shared years of success throughout their careers together, O'Driscoll is well placed to explain what he Heaslip was like behind the scenes: "He was his own person - he's pretty quirky in his own way.
"You guys only know too well that he had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the media. I think in time he might look back on that and I certainly look back at my early years of falling out with a couple of journalists and thinking I wish I could go back and tell my younger self 'There's no point, there's nothing to be gained from that' - there really isn't, there's nothing to be gained from that.
"I got it before the end that the media are part of what you do but there's no place for having a negative relationship with anyone in the media - you only come off second best with them.
"So, I think retrospectively, he'll look back and maybe it could have been easier - maybe he won't.
"I'll tell you what he was - he was a big-game player. Any of Ireland's big victories or Leinster's big victories - he was a mainstay in that and had big performances," he added.
Vodafone are Official sponsors of the Irish Rugby team. We all belong to the team of us.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
