Worcester stalwart Chris Pennell insists he is fit enough to carry on playing despite parting company with the Premiership club at the age of 34.

"I'd love to carry on playing," he told BBC Hereford & Worcester.

"I'm as fit as I've ever been. I genuinely feel really good. I don't think I've ever felt so fresh."

He added: "That's one of the few blessings of the curse that has been last 18 months. I've never felt fitter.

"I've got a few really interesting opportunities rugby wise that are coming in. I'm just weighing things up at the moment.

"I'm going to sit down with the family and see if there's something that piques our interest, which we're really excited about, then we'll go for it.

"But we're in no rush to make a decision."

Although part of a huge end-of-season exodus from Sixways, Pennell, son of the late former Worcestershire and England fast bowler Graham Dilley, is settled in his home town.

And he is keen to make to clear that he has no intention of severing his ties with the club - even if it is only for now via his continued work with the Worcester Warriors Community Foundation.

"The owners are very keen for me to stay involved regardless of where I am and what I'm doing," he said.

"Regardless of where I am in the future, this will always be my home. And I'm excited about the direction Worcester are taking.

"It's been quite humbling over the last few days getting so many messages from fans, and from people I've played with and against."

One-club man Pennell was wrongly linked with a series of potential moves elsewhere during his 14 years of service.

He now admits that there was only one occasion when he might have been tempted - when Worcester got relegated to the Championship in 2014, just at the time when Pennell broke into the England set-up.

But a meeting between him and then Worcester boss Dean Ryan and the then England management team assured him that it would not affect his England chances if he stayed at Sixways.

"Dean Ryan was director of rugby at the time and we had a great relationship," he said. "We had a frank conversation with the England management team, which was then Stuart Lancaster, Mike Catt and Andy Farrell.

"Had there been a different answer from management it might have been different. But I was assured that Worcester was still the right place for me to be.

"I'd just had the best season I'd ever had. And there was no reason to move anywhere else."

Chris Pennell was talking to BBC Hereford & Worcester's Carson Wishart.