The door remains open for Antoine Frisch to be an Ireland international, according to head coach Andy Farrell.
The Munster centre, who was born in France but is also qualified to play for England and Ireland through family, earned a first call-up to the French squad this week, but won't make his debut this weekend when France close out their Guinness Six Nations campaign at home against the English.
Frisch joined Munster in the summer of 2022 and has impressed almost instantly, scoring seven tries in 33 games across just over a season and a half.
The 27-year-old has appeared to be on course for future international honours with Ireland, having played for Emerging Ireland on their tour of South Africa 18 months ago.
A senior call-up hasn't been forthcoming, with France now looking more likely to secure him for Test rugby.
If that were to happen, it would complicate his future at Munster, with his contract running until the end of next season.
The potential of losing the centre to France has been met with anger in some parts of the province, who have already seen Jean Kleyn and Ben Healy's Test careers with South Africa and Scotland impact their team.
But Farrell said they are still keeping tabs on Frisch's situation.
"He's in our thoughts and I understand you asking that question. I spoke to Antoine previously in regards to what we think of him and I know he was very ambitious to play international rugby for Ireland as well," the Ireland coach said.
"I suppose the (France) call came and he jumped at it immediately because he wanted to show his ambition to play international rugby and see how far he could push himself in that regard.
"He’s 100% still at the front of our minds. The competition for us in that position has been fierce for a number of years now. Stu McCloskey is unbelievably unlucky to miss out this week because he’s been in flying form so you can see the type of competition that’s there.
"But taking him (Frisch) on the Emerging Ireland tour, he’s someone that was straight to the top of the list as far as pushing for places and we think he’s a great player."
If Farrell plans to keep Frisch Irish-qualified, a potential tug-of-war is on the cards with France this summer, with Ireland travelling to South Africa for a Test series, and the French expected to rotate their squad for their trip to Argentina.
But Farrell insists that he won't be handing out caps to players just to make sure they can't feature for other nations, and that whoever plays against the Springboks this summer will do so on merit.
"These games are pretty important that we’ve got. It’s my duty to do the team justice by making sure the right people if available are in the squad.
"That’s a matter of opinion sometimes but in that position it’s a tough one isn’t it and Antoine would be the first one to admit that as well.
"Now, for the rest of the season he’s obviously got an opportunity to show his worth, his improvement and therefore be in the running like everyone else."
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