Gareth Thomas captained the 2005 Lions after Brian O'Driscoll was injured
Former Lions captain Gareth Thomas is concerned that the squad selected for this summer's tour to South Africa may suffer because it is too small.
Head coach Ian McGeechan has selected a 37-man squad for the 10-match tour.
That contrasts with the 45 taken by Clive Woodward to New Zealand in 2005, five more joining the tour, along with 26 support staff, which drew criticism.
"You hope that with the limited players he's [McGeechan] got that you don't get burn-out," Thomas told Scrum V Radio.
"Because the trouble is that it is the end of a long season for a lot of players.
"There's going to be a lot of tired legs there, so it's going to be tough and it's a big ask for the players."
The 2005 Lions lost all three Tests against the All Blacks, with then-Wales skipper Thomas taking over the captaincy after Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll was injured in the first few minutes of the opening Test.
Woodward's methods were widely criticised after the series ended, but Thomas believes that strength-in-depth was not one of the 2005 Lions' failings.
"Sometimes to have more players then less players is a good thing," Thomas added.
"The crux of it all is if we'd have won the rugby and won the Tests then it would have looked back and everybody would have seen it as the right thing to do.
"Hindsight is fantastic. I think everything was done with the best preparation and the best for the team, it didn't work out because we lost on the field ultimately.
"We lost three Tests, we lost three Tests heavily, and we played New Zealand when they were at their best as well."
McGeechan has already had to make three changes to his initial squad.
Ireland scrum-half Tomas O'Leary broke his ankle, his Munster team-mate Alan Quinlan has been banned for 12 weeks for gouging, and Cardiff Blues centre Tom Shanklin dislocated his shoulder.
Scotland skipper Mike Blair has replaced O'Leary, but no replacements for Quinlan or Shanklin have yet been named.
Current Wales captain Ryan Jones and England back-row Tom Croft are the leading candidates to fill Quinlan's spot.
Centre is even more competitive, although Shanklin himself believes either Ireland's Gordon D'Arcy or England veteran Mike Tindall should replace him.
Thomas is delighted that 13 of his countrymen were initially selected to face the Springboks, but says that Lions tours are special because of the blend of the best from Britain and Ireland.
"It's a massive achievement and it's great that so many Cardiff Blues boys are going, great that so many Welsh boys are going," Thomas said.
"It's a real test of character and of you as a rugby player to see if you can integrate in the whole system and the whole ethos that is the Lions.
"It's not only on the field that makes it such a difficult concept to grasp, it's off the field as well.
"It's making new friends and trying to bond with people that you're almost bred, as a rugby player, to destroy on the field.
"It's bred in you as a player to want to play for Wales and to want to beat the English, the Irish, the Scottish and all of a sudden to come together as a team is quite a strange thing.
"I think it takes a special person and a professional attitude to integrate into it."
The new friendships made and the bonds formed are the 2005 highlights for Thomas, but says the players felt they had let down their huge support.
"I think... playing with people that you never thought you'd play with and not only playing with them but becoming friends with them," Thomas said.
"There was such expectation because of the amount of people that follow you, the crowds out there... so to come away with a whitewash of defeats was really hurtful.
"I think the players who went on the last tour will also have learnt that."
The Lions squad assemble in Surrey next Monday, six days before they fly out to South Africa.
The opening game of the 10-match tour is against a Royal XV in Rustenburg on 30 May, and there are three Test matches against the Springboks - in Durban (20 June), Pretoria (27 June) and Johannesburg (4 July).
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