He talks to rugby writer Steve Hepburn about the job he is finishing at the end of this season.
Donny Cameron admits he is a bit of a mother hen.
The masseur for Otago since 1988, and the Highlanders since they started in 1996, Cameron said massaging players was not all about getting hamstrings and backs right.
"I come in here with a positive frame of mind and the players like to hear that. Some of them might be down and need to be lifted up. They can't or won't talk about it with the coach or manager, so they talk to me about things," he said.
"And we might talk for five minutes about rugby and then talk about something completely different.
"Sure, about 65% of the time I'm talking about rugby, but other times you can talk about anything - family, studies, work."
Cameron said players had not changed markedly, although they have all got a lot bigger.
"They're still the same. But the world has changed and circumstances have too. But they all want to win, they all want to play well and be successful.
"When I first started, we had a real team of battlers who gave it their all. Then in the 1990s, we had a side which had some really good players in the side - we had about eight All Blacks. Now we're probably back to having a team of battlers.
"But I loved those guys like [David] Latta, [Steve] Hotton, who gave it their all every game. That what it comes down to. How much ticker you've got."
Cameron, 65 next month, estimated he had done more than 30,000 rubs since he first started with Otago B in 1987.
He was basically self-taught after taking up the job with the Southern senior side, when he was was club captain, and Laurie Mains was the club coach.
He did the job for Otago B for a year before moving to the A side the following year.
The union was going to make the job full time and Cameron was not interested, but then he lost his job when the Burnside freezing works closed down, asked the union about the role and has been in the job ever since.
He also helped out with the All Blacks in 1994-95, but turned down the offer to continue with the national side.
"I sat down with John Hart and he said he could only have one additional member of his management team and it was between me and the trainer.
The players wanted me, but he went with the trainer, which was common sense, but said I could still be involved.
"But I went home and thought about it and decided not to do it. I had Otago and the Highlanders and that was enough. I was away enough with them."
He said his job was not to mend injuries, but to work out tired muscles, and bodies.
"There are guys that just don't like rubs. That doesn't worry me. It's not to everyone's taste.
"But every single player would go into games now with some sort of injury. That is the way rugby is now."
Cameron has a lifestyle block in Green Island, and some land in Patearoa he is keen to work on, but he will keep a close eye on rugby.
Before departing, Cameron would love to be part of a successful Ranfurly Shield challenge.
He reckoned he had been through seven unsuccessful Ranfurly Shield challenges, starting with the narrow loss to Auckland in 1988.
