MICK O’DRISCOLL’S decision to retire means that from the outset of next season Munster will have just half of the 22-man match-day squad on their books which defeated Toulouse in the Heineken Cup final four years ago.

The 33-year-old Corkman has become the latest experienced player to call time on his Munster career as the province continues to undergo its most dramatic period of transition since the start of the professional era.

By the end of this season seven of the side which started in the 2008 Heineken Cup final – Rua Tipoki, Ian Dowling, Lifeimi Mafi, Tomás O’Leary, Jerry Flannery, John Hayes and Alan Quinlan – will have departed, while O’Driscoll will become the fourth replacement from that 16-13 win in Cardiff to move on, following in the footsteps of Frankie Sheahan, Paul Warwick and Tony Buckley.

And, of course, by the end of the current campaign Tony McGahan will have departed, having taken over from Declan Kidney following that success in 2008.

McGahan said yesterday O’Driscoll, who spent two of his 14 seasons as a professional player with Perpignan, epitomises all that is good about Munster rugby.

“From my perspective and I’m sure any of the other coaches, Michael in my opinion epitomises what Munster spirit is about and what being a Munster player stands for,” said McGahan.

“He has been there at every call for us, he has stood tall and has seen some real disappointments across the way with selection, and I probably provided a lot of them for him unfortunately.

“He has been the one that kept this team going and driven everyone on. From that perspective you don’t get too many players in a squad that do that unselfish work. He is one of them and that’s why he will leave here as one of Munster’s favourite players within the squad and I’m sure outside the squad at the same time.”

O’Driscoll follows in the footsteps of Jerry Flannery and John Hayes who also announced their retirements this season and it will be a clean cut from the game for the towering secondrow from Cork.

“It has been a tough decision but one I haven’t taken lightly. I have really enjoyed my career but now is the right time to move on,” said O’Driscoll, who picked up his 204th Munster cap in the win against Warriors on Saturday.

“This is a clean break from rugby. I have a couple of different opportunities in business, which I will hopefully explore in the next couple of months.”

While he claims he hasn’t fallen out of love with the game, O’Driscoll admitted that the frustration of sitting in the stands for big games has ground him down.

“I suppose a combination of things, this is my 14th season of professional rugby and maybe for me I’m not playing in all the big matches I would want to be playing in. I’m not saying it’s a reason but it is a contributing factor and I think I just wanted to do it on my own terms really.

“I’m happy to go now when I’m still playing relatively well, I’d rather that than go on a big sliding scale,” said O’Driscoll, who won 23 Irish caps and a further 15 for Ireland A.

Munster captain Paul O’Connell, who is just a year younger than O’Driscoll, said he was surprised by his colleague’s decision to retire.

“It is scary, but it is coming to us all. I’m sure Micko is well prepared for it, a very clever and astute guy.

“He is in great shape. A bit of a surprise and I suppose it is a decision we all will have to make soon but he is still playing great rugby, I thought he had an excellent game last weekend and he has been a great player for Munster, so best of luck to him,” he said.

O’Connell said O’Driscoll was a real team player and had made a huge contribution to Munster rugby.

“In recent years when we won Magners Leagues a lot of it has been to do with Micko’s running of the team when the internationals were away, particularly last year we got some very good results during the internationals; a lot of that would have been down to Micko, his leadership and running of the team,” added O’Connell.

Meanwhile, Ronan O’Gara has been ruled out of Saturday’s crucial clash with Scarlets, with both sides battling for a top-four finish.

McGahan confirmed that the outhalf will sit out the Parc Y Scarlets encounter having failed to recover from a dead leg sustained against Ulster, but O’Connell and Keith Earls are included.

“Paul took part in training today. He seems to be confident, but I haven’t seen his post-training yet,” said McGahan.

“Keith unfortunately couldn’t train today but we hope to have him somewhere in the mix somewhere on Thursday. It would be nice to try and keep some resemblance of a side going into two weeks in a row.”

MUNSTER SQUAD(v Scarlets) – Forwards: M Horan, W du Preez, D Varley, M Sherry, D Fogarty, D Kilcoyne, J Ryan, BJ Botha, S Archer, M O'Driscoll, P O'Connell, D Ryan, D O'Callaghan, B Holland, T O'Donnell, P O'Mahony, P Butler. Backs: T O'Leary, C Murray, D Williams, I Keatley, S Deasy, S Zebo, L Mafi, K Earls, I Dineen, J Murphy, L O'Dea, D Hurley, F Jones.