Brian O'Driscoll tells Cian Healy to play on as prop overtakes Ireland legend's caps record
Cian Healy has previously said that 2025 will probably be his last year but, as he hits the magic 134 appearances mark for Ireland, the 37-year-old is encouraged to keep going
Brian O'Driscoll has hailed Cian Healy's achievement with the prop on the cusp of overtaking him as Ireland's record caps holder.
And O'Driscoll believes there is another year left in the veteran front row soldier because of the lack of quality loosehead alternatives available to back up Andrew Porter at Test level.
"Getting over 100 caps is a huge achievement of course," said O'Driscoll. "But doing it in the front row is amazing, it really is, to have that capacity and the punishment you take.
"So as much as no-one ever likes relinquishing records or certainly this kind of record, it is absolutely a hell of a lot easier to know that it's going into good hands and to someone as likeable as Cian is."
O'Driscoll interviewed his former Leinster and Ireland team-mate - and fellow Clontarf man - for TV this week ahead of Andy Farrell's squad announcement on Thursday.
It is expected that Healy, who turned 37 last month, will be named on the bench for Saturday's clash with Australia - and after he was omitted for the Argentina game last weekend. That will bring up the magic 134 cap number.
"He takes over the caps record tomorrow but there's no-one coming through," O'Driscoll told Off The Ball. "There's no-one at loosehead.
"I know Tom O'Toole is trying to move across to that side but there were a couple of penalties against Fiji. Like, if he (Healy) stays fit there's no reason why there's not another season next year. You might look at it and say well that's not ideal because we don't have people putting pressure on, but that's not his fault.
"He's still doing a job, he's locking a scrum, he doesn't have that same explosiveness or the ball carrying but he's very much the guy to come on and close things out still for 10 or 15 minutes still.
"And we're very lucky that we have Andrew Porter who's a 70 minute guy, and Cian doesn't have to come on and empty the tank for 40, as much as I'm sure he'd like to play more.
"Porter, touch wood, isn't very injury prone so we've been lucky to have him, considering Dave Kilcoyne kind of came and went and there aren't too many others who spring to mind."
O'Driscoll admits he is a huge admirer of the work that Healy has done to keep himself at the top of the game for so long. He made his Leinster debut during the 2006-07 season.
"I can't imagine he sits still very often, but what's so impressive is the time and effort and energy that has gone into honing his craft - and the expense," said the former Ireland captain.
"He has no problem spending on his body, on himself, on prolonging things. And look it, he's 37 years of age, he's walking proof that it works.
"When he goes home there's a lot of stretching, there's the ice baths, he was building tanks in his shed for hot, cold and all that stuff - he's so diligent.
"In fairness he credited Jamie Heaslip with his level of professionalism in the early years, he spent time with him and it had a knock-on effect."
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