Sean O’Brien believes that Simon Zebo still has a future with Ireland despite announcing his departure from Munster at the end of the season, and the flanker also revealed that moving abroad is something he has considered.
The IRFU selection policy favours home-based players and the likes of Ian Madigan, who moved from Leinster to Bordeaux, Donnacha Ryan, the ex-Munster lock now at Racing and former Leinster prop Marty Moore of Wasps, have seen their international prospects diminish, if not disappear altogether, with emigration.
However, the most high-profile Ireland player to depart was Johnny Sexton, and the out-half continued to be picked by Joe Schmidt while in Paris with Racing 92 from 2013-15.
The rationale behind the policy is that players contracted by the provinces or the IRFU can be game-managed to be in optimum condition for the national team.
Ireland are expected to name their squad for upcoming games against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina in November later today.
"I don’t know if it’s set in stone," is Sexton's reading of the IRFU stance.
A move abroad, however, takes the player out of the control of the union and means the clubs call the shots on games played and participation in international training camps.
There are 16 international games left between now and World Cup warm-ups in 2019 and Schmidt will have to decide whether or not 35-cap Zebo is to get the same treatment as Sexton.
O’Brien, capped 49 times by Ireland, believes that another exception will be made for the versatile Munster back, also linked with Racing for next season.
"Some like Zeebs is so talented, he has that bit of X-factor," the Leinster back row, a supporter of MyClubFinances, an initiative aimed at helping grassroots sports clubs, told RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Sean O’Rourke.
"I still think he’ll definitely be called upon in my eyes.
"He has a young family now and he’s at that point where I suppose you make life decisions about what you want to do going forward.
"I can see why he’s going so it’s his decision at the end of the day.
"It’s probably a [strange] time...coming into a World Cup year but I understand fully that players have to make the best of it with the time we have as professionals."
And 30-year-old O’Brien also indicated that he could follow in Zebo’s footsteps but clarified that he would "definitely not" consider a switch before the Japan World Cup.
He said: "I’ve often said that I wouldn’t mind experiencing something like that.
"I’ll see how the next few years go. I'm contracted until the end of the 2019 World Cup so we'll see where I am then."
O'Brien has missed the last few weeks with a calf injury but says he is ready for this Saturday's Pro14 game against Ulster in Belfast.
"I’m fit for selection...I’m raring to go," he said.
