Shelbourne's Rachel Graham believes Republic of Ireland boss Carla Ward has made the right decision in calling up Ruesha Littlejohn for the World Cup qualifiers against France and the Netherelands, despite the midfielder's lack of game time at club level.
Littlejohn has had very few minutes under her belt at Crystal Palace the last couple of months having served a five-match ban for grabbing Leicester City's Hannah Cain by the neck and throwing her to the ground back in November.
The 35-year-old also has to manage her training load due to a long-standing Achilles issue, but Ward is a big admirer of what she brings to the engine room. Littlejohn started both legs of the Nations League play-off against Belgium, with Graham expecting her to feature in next week's daunting double-header.
"That's what Carla weighs up, she needs results now, she's not building for long term in this camp," Graham said on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
"To be fair to Ruesha, I think she probably gets a lot more spotlight. Obviously her suspension brought a lot of spotlight on her as well.
"I don't think we can really afford the luxury of only picking players that are playing minimum 60, 70 minutes every week because we don't really have that. Jessie Stapleton and Jamie Finn haven't had a load of game time the last few weeks either but they're in and there's no questions about them."
"Sometimes you need players in there who have been there and done it."
On the chances of Littlejohn getting the nod for the French clash at Tallaght, or the trip to face the Dutch in Utrecht, Graham added: "Carla has spoken about Ruesha's experience. That is hugely important within a camp but you still also need to offer something on the pitch as well so I don't think Carla is bringing her in just for that.
"She started our two games against Belgium and has been a big player for so long. Sometimes you need players in there who have been there and done it. It could be the case if she's not 90 minutes fit it's the last 20 minutes to come on, calm everyone down, see a game out. That could be the role for her that she's planning.
"It would have been very hard to leave her out given the experience she has, how big she's been the last few years. I do think the way she got suspended just brought on extra spotlight on to her."
Eleven of Ward's 23-player squad are aged 30 or older. It prompts questions about Ireland's succession planning, with an eye on the next Euros qualification campaign and beyond.
However Graham is not too concerned.
"Ruesha is 35 now, she's probably the one that's really coming to the end," she said.
"Katie's 30, Denise is 32. They don't look to be slowing down in any sort of way. Katie is in peak condition, one of our fittest players, the same with Denise. It's probably their last chance of maybe making a World Cup with the Ireland team but I don't think it's going to be immediate in the next year or two where we see them fall off a cliff.
"Courtney Brosnan is another one. As a goalkeeper she could nearly go to the age of 40 so it's not a huge concern.
"You look at the younger players coming through, Abbie Larkin and Jessie Stapleton, they're going to be around for another ten years, they're going to be huge.
"If you're looking domestically to really start replacing these players, we have young Madison McGuane (Treaty United) in the league. For me she's a bit of a mix of Katie McCabe and Denise O'Sullivan, a nice left-footer, plays centre-mid. She's really going to be a top player for us.
"Even Aoibhe Brennan playing for Bohs, she's kind of playing in that No 6 role where Ruesha plays. She's going to be another huge player. I think she'll maybe go to England this summer, she's just kind of waiting to finish school, so we do have players there to replace them. It's just about the timing and when do we get these players in."
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