Simon Zebo hasn't given up hope of making a return to the Ireland team in the 2024 Six Nations.
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell is due to name his squad next Wednesday for the defence of the Grand Slam title, which begins away to France on Friday, 2 February in Marseille.
Zebo hasn't played for Ireland since the summer of 2017, with his 2018 move to Racing 92 seeing him excluded by the IRFU's selection policy.
The Corkman returned to Munster in 2021, and while he did feature in an Irish squad later that year, he hasn't been able to add to his 35 caps.
Injury has limited the wing/full-back to just three appearances this season for Munster, but the 33-year-old has impressed in attack in all three of those games.
With Farrell losing both Mack Hansen and Jimmy O'Brien to injury for the Six Nations, Zebo doesn't believe he's run out of time to catch the Ireland coach's eye.
"You'd never know," he smiled, when asked if he could make a late bid for a Six Nations place.
"I'm fully focused on just [trying to] keep playing well for Munster, you don't want to count your chickens.
"I just want to keep playing well, keep getting my hands on the ball and showing what I can do and trying to help Munster as best I can, and I know if I'm fit and healthy I can mix it with anyone, so I've just got to keep putting my best foot forward. That's the goal.
"I'm very confident in my ability, I always have been. I know that if I'm playing to the best of my ability that I can play at any level.
"I've just got to focus on keep on playing well for Munster and that's my goal. We have a lot of quality players here and the competition is high, I've got to do my best to keep playing quality rugby and whatever happens, happens.
"But no matter what the level, the bigger the game is when I tend to play my best rugby.
"I've got full confidence in myself and hopefully I can keep playing as much as possible and stay healthy, so that's the main goal."
Zebo's recent performances - all of which have come at full-back - are a return to form for a player who has had to endure a disrupted 12 months, playing just five times since the start of 2023, while he wasn't involved in the closing stages of Munster's BKT United Rugby Championship title play-off run last summer.
"There were different reasons for that [absence] as well so I won't go into it, but my health has been the main issue and being able to train at a high level and then being able to put your best foot forward was a big part of that.
"I know if I'm healthy and training well then I'll play well, so now at the moment the body is in good health and I'm able to put some back-to-back games on the board, but I haven't been for a while.
"So yeah, the bigger the game, the better I play. Knowing that, and knowing that my body is giving me confidence in training, now I can just show what I can do on the pitch and that's been the case the last few games.
"I've been playing well for a long time, it's that my health has kind of let me down a little bit in getting back-to-back performances and different things.
"Each game I've been involved in this season has been a top tier one against an international quality team so I've been happy with how I've performed.
"Obviously there's room for improvement on how we've performed but it's been a good start for me. Hopefully I can build on those performances and keep my form going into the next part of the season," he added.
An international recall might be a longshot given the options at Farrell's disposal, but he could be in with a shout with a big performance in the south of France this weekend.
While Toulon have lost both Champions Cup games this season, the Challenge Cup winners have made a solid start to their domestic season, sitting fifth in the Top14 through 12 games.
By contrast, Munster's recent form has seen them fall to 10th in the URC, ahead of a daunting trip to Stade Felix Mayol.
And Zebo says he knows how intimidating the Toulon ground can be from his time in France with Racing.
"Yeah, we've had a few chats with some of the younger players, they've been asking about the atmosphere and when they start throwing the newspapers in the air, that's never a good sign so hopefully that doesn't happen!
"It's obviously a pretty hostile environment and as hostile as they get in France, so it will be a very big challenge. But I think this group of players is well prepared, the coaching staff have done a great job with us and I think we will be fully equipped to get a result as long as we can play our best rugby.
"They have a lot of stars, a lot of great players over there and they're a team doing well enough in the Top 14 and Europe is a big competition for that club as well having been so successful in the past.
"So it's going to be a huge challenge but whichever team can put the better 80 minutes on the board, it will be a dogfight but hopefully we can get that full 80-minute performance.
"We've been in the mix in these close games in the past and getting over the line is going to come sooner rather than later, hopefully."
Watch Leinster v Stade Francais in the Champions Cup on Saturday from 4.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on www.rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1.
