Louise Quinn hopes to add to her 121 caps in the upcoming Nations League double-header against Turkey and Slovenia, despite announcing her retirement from the game last month.
Carla Ward's charges, who are endeavouring to keep their promotion hopes alive, face Turkey in Istanbul on Friday and welcome Slovenia to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh four days later.
Quinn's last appearance for the Girls in Green came at the Cork venue last July in a 3-1 Euro 2025 qualifier win over France, with the Birmingham City centre-back missing out on Ireland's subsequent encounters – including the devastating play-off defeat to Wales – with a hip problem.
The Wicklow woman's experience is a significant boost to a squad that has lost Diane Caldwell, Niamh Fahey and Julie-Ann Russell to retirement since she last figured for Ireland, but Quinn – who turns 35 next month – knows the chance of a last hurrah in green on the pitch is not guaranteed.
Last week, Ward (above) herself admitted: "She's desperate to represent her country one more time. I can't tell her, I've been honest. It's not necessarily nailed on. She's got to earn the right to be selected for these games, but she's in with a chance, like everybody else."
Speaking to RTÉ Sport from the Ireland camp in Turkey on Monday, Quinn was asked on the latest on her prospects of playing, and replied: "I have no idea. She's spot on (regarding Ward's comments). Being able to be called into the squad, I kind of haven't had that nervousness and hoping I get in.
"Not that it was ever a given that I was, but I was consistently playing with my club, no injuries, all of these things.
"So the fact that I was able to get the call-up – it's about the team, obviously – but I'm here to play. I'm here to fight for my position, it's not going to be given to me. I absolutely know that.
"Carla doesn't owe me anything.
"I'm going to be training hard all week to try to get myself in the team and we'll see how it goes."
Quinn's club career has included spells with Peamount United, Eskilstuna United, Notts County, Arsenal and Fiorentina before arriving at Birmingham, but there is nothing opaque about which team still dominates her affections.
"If I could keep the Irish team as my club team forever, I'd be set," she said. "Leaving this team is the most difficult thing about retiring for me.
"It's been my whole life, so that was the hardest thing.
"You want to be able to stop and take that time, but you also don't want to lose that feeling and how magic it is, coming into camps and playing for your country.
"It has to stop at some stage. I'm a grown woman and I have to make those decisions."
Quinn (above) cited a desire to spend more time with her family, including her newborn son Daragh, as a factor in her retirement decision and has been mulling over her future options since her retirement announcement
"I'm literally on the job hunt as we speak," she said. "I'm a little bit open to everything. I've been around for a long time and I've experienced a lot of things.
"But if I'm trying to go into a company or business situation, I need to be able to write that down and project it up to be something.
"I really need to figure out what it's like in that kind of working world and environment.
"It's just trying to pinpoint. I think I have so many things in my head that I want to do.
"At the moment, making sport – or specifically women's football – more available, there's a lot of foundation work potentially in Birmingham City that the club is developing.
"Then there's PFA stuff, players' union, I've a fair bit of experience in that and trying to help people and players in terms of things that I potentially had trouble with or missed out on. Just learning more about that and then there's the Irish team, and if there's any way I can be involved and help players and help the coaches.
"Maybe a bit of media stuff as well – that I really enjoy.
"I've about four jobs there that I'm applying for and I'll probably take all four if I get them!"
Given her experience, leadership qualities and football IQ, it's somewhat surprising that the world of coaching isn't an immediate focus for that job hunt.
"I've kind of found that I'm not sure if coaching is for me," Quinn admitted.
"Maybe I will start to find that love for it. I have a couple of badges and I'm finishing my B (UEFA B Licence), hopefully soon.
"But at the moment, it's not totally on my radar."
Ireland captain and Champions League winner Katie McCabe (above) will arrive at the Ireland training camp on Tuesday, with Quinn bursting with pride after the Tallaght woman helped her former club to defeat Barcelona 1-0 in Saturday's final in Lisbon.
"I was absolutely delighted for them and obviously Katie is so deserving of it," Quinn enthused. "I'm just so proud of her.
"I couldn't believe it, where she's come from and playing in the League of Ireland all those years ago with her and seeing now how she stepped up to the plate on the biggest club stage that you can get.
"She's done us all so proud and I just can't believe it. I'm going to feel weird when she comes into camp. I'm just so delighted for her."
Watch Turkey v Republic of Ireland in the UEFA Women's Nations League on Friday from 5.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on 2fm’s Game On.
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