Third only to Donncha O'Callaghan and Ronan O'Gara in terms of the appearances he made for Munster, Peter Stringer has revisited his realisation that the time had come for him to leave the Irish province.

"I never saw myself leaving, never wanted to leave," Stringer disclosed on Monday's OTB AM.

"But when you're third or fourth choice at a club, as good as the place is and as good as the environment is, it was hell."

Beginning his Munster career as Irish rugby negotiated its embrace of professionalism, Stringer's time in red would see the Cork native win two Heineken Cup titles with the province.

Yet, as his playing-time began to dwindle and he became an ever more peripheral part of Munster's plans, Stringer explained the day-to-day stresses of looking from the outside in.

"You're doing all the training, you're [actually] doing more training," Stringer stated.

"Mentally, you're thinking to yourself, 'OK, I'm not getting the run-out every weekend,' so you're training Saturday and Sunday to try and make an impact when Monday comes.

"So that was a vicious cycle. It was an environment I loved, but had to get out of for my own sanity, knowing that I could keep playing."

A decision that took the former Irish scrum-half to the English Premiership, Stringer would make appearances for Saracens, Newcastle and Bath among others, despite permanently leaving Munster in 2013 at the age of 35, Stringer would continue playing professionally until his confirming his retirement last summer.

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.