Jeremy Loughman says he won't shy away from stepping up if called upon by Ireland boss Andy Farrell but won't get distracted ahead of Munster's clash with Castres.
The 30-year-old loosehead prop has five Ireland caps. He made his debut against Fiji in 2022 and appeared at the 2023 World Cup.
His last international cap came as a replacement in the 36-0 win over Italy two years ago.
Cian Healy and Dave Kilcoyne both retired last season, while the two looseheads who lined out for Ireland during the November series, Leinster's Andrew Porter (calf) and Paddy McCarthy (foot), are injured just 22 days out from the opening Guinness Six Nations game against France.
Leinster's Jack Boyle missed the Champions Cup win over La Rochelle with a shoulder injury but may feature against Bayonne this weekend, while Tom O'Toole from Ulster and Munster's Michael Milne are also in the mix.
After an injury-disrupted 2024/25 season, the Reno-born forward is enjoying a run of games that has put him back in the international frame.
"There's always that thought in the back of your mind and it's definitely something I still have massive aspirations for so I wouldn't shy away from that," Loughman, who helped Munster to the 2023 URC title, told RTÉ Sport.
"But, personally, I believe that putting out my performances for Munster and putting the best foot forward there puts me in that position to take advantage of whatever comes but I'd be solely focused on Munster.
"But definitely it's something I wouldn't shy away from, yeah.
"Last year was a tough year.
"I definitely came out at the start of [this] year, I wanted to pick up where I'd left off and hit the ground running and didn't feel like I did it as well as I'd like to but the last few weeks I've got a lot of confidence.
"I think I've been playing some good rugby and I'm feeling much better and back to it now so really enjoying playing under everyone, really enjoying where the team is and how everything's going."
Munster have to first put the pain of defeat to Toulon behind them ahead of Saturday's winner-takes-all clash with Pool 2 bottom team Castres.
Clayton McMillan's fought back to lead with just four minutes to play at Stade Felix Mayol but were ultimately to pay the price of losing two players to the sin-bin across 14 penalties, some of which were harsh calls by referee Karl Dickson, and some of which were easily avoidable.
"I think it's a tough one," said the former Athy RFC junior Loughman.
"It's one of those ones where there's probably that [there's] a lot of disappointment in the fact that we could have won it and we feel like we should have, but we did a lot of good things, do you get me?
"It may be a bit of frustration that you get a lot of stuff right and then you kind of don't come away with the result at the end.
"But some of those things are our own fault so we had to have a look at those and see where we allowed the pressure off or allowed them into the game and so that's what we kind of talked about [yesterday] and worked on.
"The name of the game now is 'discipline', it allows teams in, especially a big French team like that.
"We gave them access with those penalties and gave them shots at goal so they're the frustrating ones when you kind of let a team off the hook when you're building a lot of pressure against them."
The losing bonus point secured with a last-ditch defensive effort on Sunday means Munster have six points from their three games to date, while Castres have five from their second-round victory over Edinburgh.
Victory for the hosts on Saturday will guarantee progression to the round of 16, while a bonus point could even see them into the top two and secure a home berth.
The two sides have met 19 times in Europe and Loughman is expecting another battle in Limerick.
"It's always a tough game," he said.
"They're a big physical pack, so be confrontational up front for us, and then they have some electric players out wide and in the backs that can cause some real damage to us.
"If we if we give a messy ball or give them opportunities, they are dangerous."
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