Rory Best insists he will think long and hard about his future in rugby after the November Internationals.
The 36-year-old admitted his focus was on returning to full fitness ahead of clashes with New Zealand and Italy, but that his decision could be made before the end of the year.
"I'll sit down with my wife and take stock after I've tasted a bit of everything," he told Dave McIntyre on OTB AM.
"European rugby, club rugby and international rugby. I'll see after that if I can go on after the World Cup or whether this will be my last season with Ulster and finish at the World Cup.
"That's a decision I don't think I'm ready to make now. When you make decisions during preseason, when you're naturally more tired anyway, you are open to making the wrong one.
"I don't want to retire and think I could have played on. But also, I don't want to be playing something that I don't think I'll get my place in and I'm just going to drift out of the game."
The Ireland captain explained the changes he's had to make to his preparation for games in recent years.
"The body takes a little longer to recover and you have to be a little be smarter with how long you train and how you recover. I do less now than I did when I was 26.
"Ultimately professional rugby and playing at the top level requires sacrifice. The sacrifices I make now are more than I did whenever I was playing 10 years ago.
"You know that the light at the end of the tunnel closer and you are working in a more limited time, so you do what it takes to get you in the right place to compete for positions."
Over 100 young rugby stars lined out on Saturday last in De la Salle, Dublin for a masterclass with Gland Slam-winning Captain and Glenisk Ambassador Rory Best as part of an exclusive Glenisk Rugby Training Camp. The group of lucky boys and girls, aged between 7-12 years, spent the morning developing their skills and knowledge of the game under the encouraging eye of rugby hero Rory Best and a team of IRFU rugby coaches.
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