Coming so soon after the announcement that Simon Zebo will leave Munster, the departure of Peter O'Mahony would be a bitter blow for the province if it were to happen.
That of course is not a foregone conclusion but nor is it a done deal amid interest from French and English clubs that can offer lucrative contracts.
Former Munster and Ireland players Donncha O'Callaghan and Keith Wood joined us on Wednesday Night Rugby to share their thoughts on the situation around O'Mahony and others who are almost out of contract.
"I hope it's agents trying to get things over the line and to be fair, I think that's the case with the likes of these fellas to be fair. They're guys that really care about their province and the country," said Donncha.
"I'll be honest with you, contract negotiation time is really, really stressful and when you consider these guys have been away in camp for the last few weeks, playing big international games and now they're coming back into what is the real meat of their season, the back to back European Cup games and then huge provincial matches. So it's trying to get the balance on that and make sure they're getting what's right for them.
"Look, there's massive money in England and France but the model isn't right. I know first-hand with our club [Worcester], and with many of the clubs, they run at a loss. People put money into these clubs knowing that they're going to lose money."
On O'Mahony, he described his former team-mate as a "special guy within the environment" of Munster, similar to many of the stalwarts of bygone eras and "massively important to Irish and Munster rugby" and a symbol for aspiring young players in Cork and the rest of the province.
But he feels "the market value for players has increased across the board and I think with both CJ [Stander] and Pete, they're just guys who just want their market value".
Donncha also discussed his own experience in 2005 in regards to that difficult thing of being able to ascertain one's value.
"I just remember once in 2005, I went up to Gloucester to have a look. I didn't know my market value. I was on a provincial contract and you can chat to agents but it's nothing like actually sitting down across the way from the clubs and finding out what your value was. And that led to me moving onto a national contract and I was really happy with that.
"What's happened now is that the money is so great. Like, it would have been a disaster if they'd offered me a brilliant deal because I didn't want to go."
And on the overall view of how the O'Mahony situation should be handled, there's one result he wants to see for the good of Irish and Munster rugby.
"For me, it's a no-brainer. Peter O'Mahony playing for Munster, just boom, just make it happen. He's the heartbeat of the place at the moment and it's important we keep that," he also said.
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