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Kyries Hebert will turn 39 late next year, but the Ottawa Redblacks linebacker figures he has plenty more left in the tank.

A potential free agent, Hebert said he’d love to be back … if the team wants him.

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“I feel good. I love this city, it’s a great situation,” Hebert said during the Redblacks’ locker clean-out day Tuesday. “I would like to be here, to be honest. That’s something you usually don’t do when you’re a free agent is kind of show you’re hand. There’s no place else I’d rather play.”

Then he laughed. “If they tell (they don’t want me back) based on your age and you’re bald and you’re ugly, I can’t control that.”

Hebert, a starter at the beginning of the year, found himself in an alternating mix of talented linebackers toward the end of the season. But the production was still there for a player who missed three games because of two separate Canadian Football League suspensions for what it called dangerous hits. He had 47 tackles in 11 games after making 110 in 2017 with the Montreal Alouettes.

“I played four games with a torn quad, my numbers weren’t the same at the beginning of the year,” Hebert said. “That healed and I had almost six tackles a game (after that) — that puts you on pace for 100 tackles. That’s the kind of production I expected. If I can do that, I want to continue to play.

“If it were the other way around, if I started the season and was averaging close to six, then went down, then it means you’re on the decline and you should probably let go. I’m still as passionate for the game. I wake up in the morning, I’m excited to come to work. I come here early, I leave late.”