British and Irish Lions lock Paul O’Connell is already excited about the prospect of touring Argentina this summer with Ireland.
The 34-year-old missed the men in green’s clash with Scotland at the start of this year with flu but has been relatively injury-free since breaking his arm on the Lions tour last summer.
He still has a title charge to focus on with Munster, but O'Connell can't help but let his mind wander to Ireland's summer adventure to South America to take on Los Pumas.
And he believes a good tour to Argentina coupled with a solid pre-season will see him firing on all cylinders in time for next year's World Cup.
"I certainly want to go and play [in Argentina]," O'Connell said .
"I've been really well managed and I think you just get better and better when you're playing.
"If I can just have a good pre-season I think I'll be in a really good place this year. So I'm eager to go.
"I chatted to Jason Cowman [IRFU strength and conditioning coach] only last week about it and he was saying he has a theory that the more pre-seasons you can accumulate back to back, the more conditioned you will be.
"There's times this season where I have felt really sluggish and I can feel the fact I haven't had that pre-season work in me but putting in a season of 25, 26 matches.
"If I can put that together with a good pre-season it will put me in a really good position for next year."
