Negotiating a golf trip away with the boys when you have a seven-week-old baby back at home is a feat in itself.
Still managing to escape when your daughter, who is nearly two years-old, is coming down with chicken pox is a different achievement altogether. As rugby fans have long known, Brian O’Driscoll really can do anything.
The bills have to get paid somehow, though. Now well into the first year of a life of retirement from professional rugby, the Irishman, who won the Six Nations title twice with his country, is still working out exactly what he wants to do next.
This week, he has come to the capital as a guest of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship’s sponsors.
On Tuesday, he provided a rugby clinic at the British School Al Khubairat with fellow former Test stars George Gregan and Gavin Hastings.
On Wednesday, he was out on the National Course for the pre-tournament pro-am. He played a little bit of golf in his youth but has been light on practice since then, so he only plays off a handicap of nine.
“It is not a very good nine,” the former Ireland captain said with characteristic modesty. Either that, or the one-downmanship of a seasoned bandit.
He was clearly feeling the apprehension that regular mortals feel when teeing it up next to tour pros, too, given he was getting his excuses in early.
He had tweaked a muscle in his back while training at the gym the previous day, he said.
“I would balloon. There is a big person in here,” he said of his need to keep to a regular fitness plan, even though retirement from professional sport means he is no longer obliged to do so.
“I have to keep it ticking away. A big thing is portion control. If you are not expending as much energy, you don’t need to take in as much food.”
Learning to start living again. Such is the challenge of retired sportsmen. Long before even middle age approaches, let alone old age, they are faced with their own mortality when retirement beckons.
Adapting can be difficult, even for those as well-adjusted as O’Driscoll.
“When all you know is 15 years of playing and then you stop, as much as you plan for the next phase, it is difficult to know what to get into,” the former British & Irish Lions centre said.
“I am taking my time. There are a few things keeping me ticking over while I build a five- or 10-year plan.”
As arguably the best player from the northern hemisphere in rugby’s professional era, O’Driscoll, who scored 46 tries for Ireland, has always had plenty of options available to him.
Among other enterprises, he even owned a restaurant in the lee of the Burj Khalifa in downtown Dubai during his playing days, but he has since let that go.
Fatherhood is a pressing diversion. And to be fair to him, he only found out daughter Sadie had fallen ill since arriving in the UAE.
He would happily be back at home doing his best to help out wife Amy with the new arrival, their son Billy, given the chance.
His main professional preoccupation for now is providing expert analysis on television coverage of the European Champions Cup. He will be missing this weekend’s golf as a result of his TV commitments.
Unsurprisingly for someone as programmed for excellence as O’Driscoll was during the course of his glorious playing career, he was not content just to fall in to punditry.
His employers guided him through his TV initiation. But, not content to rely on 141 Tests of playing experience, he also went for media training of his own accord to try to improve.
“You need a run of games to get confident,” he said, a sentiment he could easily have borrowed from his playing days.
“You know if it has been a good show or not. You know if you have said something nonsensical or if you have added value.
“If you make a good point, and you know you have said something that would not have registered with people otherwise, you do get some satisfaction. You are your own best critic.”
O’Driscoll is still only 35. He says he briefly hankered after a return to playing, when he was swept up in the big-match atmosphere of November’s Test series.
But there is a big year ahead for Irish rugby. Rarely have they entered World Cup year in better spirits than now.
So did he hang his boots up too early?
“My body couldn’t do what my mind was thinking. There lies a big frustration,” he said.
“It is a younger guy’s game. I didn’t quite have the agility that I did in the early parts of my career.
“You have to evolve, but I think there are only so many times you can evolve as a player.”
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