EMOTIONS will run high at Sixways today when Ireland legend and Worcester Warriors captain Donncha O’Callaghan plays the final game in his glittering 20-year career.

The 39-year-old lock said 24 members of his family will be coming over from Cork to see him run out for the last time in Warriors’ clash with Harlequins (3pm).

But O’Callaghan insists he will be treating his swansong like any other game as he bids to bow out with a victory in the Aviva Premiership.

Warriors need just a point to secure their top-flight status as they sit nine clear of London Irish who host Saracens tomorrow (3pm).

“I promise you my single focus for this match is the performance,” O’Callaghan said.

“I don’t want to treat this game any differently.

“When you have got quality opposition coming at you in the Premiership if we don’t bring our best or even play beyond ourselves we won’t be in with a chance.

“You have got to channel your emotions in the right way and that’s the big thing for me.

“I actually use emotion as a fuel.

“There are plenty of games I look back on and say ‘Who is that lunatic?'

“But that’s because I need to get emotionally invested in the game and need to give all of myself to it.

“If I don’t channel that emotion correctly I know that I can rack up 20 penalties in the first three minutes.”

O’Callaghan, who made his senior debut for Munster in 1998, said he had spent the last few months considering whether or not to call it a day.

But after three seasons at Warriors he felt it was the right time to “draw a line in the sand” and put his family first.

Asked why he chose to hang his boots up before the final game of the campaign at Northampton Saints the following Saturday, O’Callaghan replied: “I will be honest with you. It was maybe because of other opportunities outside of the game.

“Family-wise it was also important for them to know that I am calling time on it.

“Even in the last few months I have been thinking ‘Will I keep going on?’ “I can easily keep playing but there comes a time when you have got to draw a line in the sand and say ‘That’s it’.”

O’Callaghan made more than 270 appearances and won two Heineken Cup titles over the course of 17 seasons at Munster.

On the international scene the second row gained 94 caps for Ireland, winning the Grand Slam in 2009, and went on two British and Irish Lions tours.

Since joining Warriors in 2015 O’Callaghan has made 62 showings but will now look ahead to a summer without a gruelling pre-season training programme.

“I actually think that’s the bit I will miss,” O’Callaghan added.

“They are the moments when you make bonds with your team-mates which get you through the difficult times in games.

“I have always loved the physical side of the game. I will just have to swap that with something else but of course vanity will kick in and I will know that I will never hit a maul or a scrum again.”