Paul O’Connell leaves with Munster blessing, says Garrett Fitzgerald

Munster Rugby chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald expects Paul O’Connell to make a final decision on his next career step in the coming fortnight, having today announced that the Irish captain will be released from his IRFU Munster contract following the Rugby World Cup.

He also affirmed that financial implications were not considered when the decision was made to grant an early release to O’Connell, whose contract was due to run until June 2016.

“It got a lot of coverage and speculation in the media but, as of now, even though Paul has decided where he is relative to Munster, he hasn’t finalised what he’s doing in the future; which I’m sure he’ll do sometime in the next week or two,” said Fitzgerald.