Peter O'Mahony admits he will be considering retirement in the wake of Ireland's Rugby World Cup elimination.
The 34-year-old started in all five of Ireland's games at the tournament, and played the full 80 minutes in Saturday's 28-24 defeat to the All Blacks at Stade de France.
The quarter-final was a final game for Ireland captain Johnny Sexton before retirement, while it was also revealed afterwards that his fellow Test centurion Keith Earls would be quitting the game.
And O'Mahony admits the World Cup exit marks the "end of an era" for Irish rugby.
"You've a group of senior players who are moving on. There’s no other way of putting it," he said following the loss against New Zealand.
"There’s a group of guys who won’t play for Ireland again who’ve had an incredible impact on Irish rugby, not only in the last few years but in the last decade. So absolutely, it is the end of an era, yeah."
The Munster captain earned his 101st cap in Saturday night's last-eight meeting with New Zealand, having followed in the footsteps of both Sexton and Earls in reaching his century last week.
And he says the pair have left a considerable mark on Irish rugby.
"It's tough to lose these guys in these tough circumstances. I’ve spent a lot of time with himself [Earls] and Johnny obviously. Probably every one of my caps had one or two of them in it, if not all of them.
"It’s tough to lose fellas like that – big characters, big players for us. Most importantly, big people, the best type of people, fellas who have your back all the time, good friends of mine, so it’s tough to say goodbye to them."
Like Sexton, O'Mahony will be 38-years-old when the next World Cup rolls round in Australia in 2027, and while he appears to be right at the top of his game in the last 12 months, he says he will be considering his future over the coming months when his IRFU central contract expires in the summer.
"Will I come back? We'll see," he added.
"It’s tough one to take, as a lot of my friends won’t be back so I’ve a contract to the end of the year and we’ll see how we go after that."
The defeat was Ireland's eighth quarter-final loss in World Cups, and the second in a row against New Zealand after their 46-14 hammering in Tokyo four years ago.
And while O'Mahony said there was little consolation in the fact that Ireland came so close to snatching the win late on, he hopes people can appreciate the effort they put in over the last few months.
"It was hard to show your face when we went home," he said of the 2019 defeat.
"I'd hope there’d be a lot of people proud of the team and the performances they’ve put in. We’ve seen some of the videos of the support we’ve had at home. It’s been incredible so hopefully they’re proud of us.
"It's a tough dressing room, probably the toughest I’ve been in, to be honest. But look, as you say, there’s worse things going on in the world. We’ll understand that over the next 24, 48 hours.
"I'm very proud of the team. As I said, we’ve achieved a huge amount together over the last four years, building up to this.
"It’s a terribly tough pill to swallow. Obviously we had plans to continue on for the next couple of weeks but I’m proud of the lads and how they’ve carried themselves over the past few weeks, and the past few years.
"We’ve had 17 games unbeaten, a Grand Slam, a series won in New Zealand, there are lots of positives form this group and I’m sure there’s lots of kids who we’ve inspired to take up the game and who might be in this position in 15, 20 years time, and you can look back and be proud of that."
