"For me, in the job that I do, it's different to other jobs. The end could be next week if I got injured or something, so you don't know. I will know when I'm close to the end, and I'm probably as close as I've been.
"I'll take the season, I'll see how I go. There's a part of me that wouldn't mind going back to Europe for a season or two. We will see what happens."
His decision to take things season by season is sensible given his more than 20 years playing professional league and rugby. But if he did decide to continue playing in Europe, and he is bound to attract interest given the impact he made at Irish club Leinster last year during his loan from Fukuoka (he helped win the Heineken Cup), just when will it all end? Could he still be playing at 40, setting surely a lasting benchmark for a lock at the highest club level?
Thorn rarely gets injured and he is so good at his core roles - pushing in scrums, clearing bodies from rucks, jumping and lifting in lineouts - that he doesn't need to do any of the flashy stuff.
Thorn's work ethic and professionalism are well documented. The way he prepares for trainings and matches, and the impact he makes in them, means he can't help but be popular with his teammates and coaches. And he takes pride in giving his all on the field.
His sense of humour isn't as well known. But a story did the rounds a while back about how an Ireland test loose forward at Leinster met his match in Thorn only two weeks after the big man's arrival in Dublin.
The No 8 was in the midst of handing out more orders when Thorn replied: "Save the energy for the scrum, mate. I can't even feel any weight from you. Less talk, more pushing, mate!"
