Sir Alex Ferguson believes defender John O'Shea has many years of international football ahead of him.
The 29-year-old, who captained Manchester United for their friendly game against League of Ireland selection in Dublin, has won 62 Republic of Ireland caps since 2001.
Speaking to journalists after the game, Ferguson said: "He could play until his forties, he's a young, fit man. John will play for years."
But the United manager remains cautious over the injury he picked up last November while he was on international duty with Ireland in the ill-fated World Cup play-off against France. But that aside, O'Shea has been largely injury free.
"He's had one injury in his career at United and that was last season after the game in Paris where he had a haemorrhage in his thigh.
"It's the only injury he's ever had at our club, which was a bad one as it turned out, an unusual injury. We had to be careful with the classification of it, that's why we had to take our time with it, but he's never been injured."