Former Ireland and British and Irish Lions second-row Donncha O’Callaghan says the physicality in professional rugby has gone “through the roof”.

He is now at a point in his career where he’s glad to still be in one piece after a match.

The 38-year-old is currently with Worcester Warriors and revealed on Newstalk’s Off The Ball, he has seen a change in the Premiership this season.

“Maybe it’s me being older within the game that I think maybe I’m getting old, so this hurts more but I’ll be honest with you, guys are really conditioned now, they’re so much bigger,” said O’Callaghan.

“Guys are so much bigger. My team-mates, we’ve got 147kg props with really low body fat. They’re just massive, massive men.

“This week, we put out 23 guys against Brive and 17 of them had to report to the injury clinic on Sunday and weren’t fit to train on Monday morning. Out of our 23 guys, 17 of them needed some form of treatment or were nursing an injury after a game.”

O’Callaghan also explained that these injuries also occur in training, and that something must be done to lighten the training load.

“The players’ union needs to step up and control the contact at training,” he added.

“We can all live with an injury in games, I just think the contact level at training is really high, really severe in tight drills that maybe you could have done for a few minutes a few years ago and got away with it when guys were smaller but when you’ve big strong men now, it’s getting very, very hard.

“It’s a concern, it really is and I’ll be honest, it’s gone to the point where nearly every game you come off and you’re OK, you’re thankful.

“I think guys can play games, they can live with that. You wouldn’t believe the contact level in training now. You chat with the other guys in the Premiership, physicality in training is probably where you pick up most of your bangs and knocks.

“It’s probably two concussions a week and I know concussion is a hard one to talk about. It’s also other fractures and breaks due to training. That’s something that the players’ union needs to step up and be better at in the Premiership: look at the training loads.”