Dundee boss Paul Hartley believes Darren O'Dea should aim to kick-start his Republic of Ireland career after returning to Scotland to join the Dens Park club.
The 28-year-old former Celtic stopper signed a contract with the Taysiders until the end of the season after a spell in India with Mumbai City.
O'Dea had loan spells at Reading, Ipswich and Leeds United previous to playing for Toronto FC in Canada and Metalurh Donetsk in Ukraine before returning to Blackpool
During that time the 20-times capped stopper fell out of the international scene - his last appearance was against Wales in 2013 - and had to watch from afar, at times literally, as Martin O'Neill's side qualified for the 2016 European Championship finals in France this summer.
However, Hartley believes O'Dea's return to the Ladbrokes Premiership should also be a potential stepping stone to donning the green and white again.
He said: "It is a goal that he has got to aim for. But he needs to be playing regular football.
"He has 20 caps which is terrific, so if he is doing well here then hopefully he puts himself in the frame."
Hartley, who played alongside O'Dea at Celtic, was delighted with his new recruit who is a ready-made replacement for James McPake who will miss the rest of the season with a knee cap injury sustained in the 2-1 derby win over Dundee United at Dens Park at the weekend.
The Dark Blues' manager said: "He is somebody I know well. He fits the bill for us.
"He is at the right age, he has good experience, a good leader in the same mould as McPake.
"He has a fantastic attitude and played for some really good clubs, so we are delighted."
O'Dea was more circumspect about his chances of an international recall, insisting Dundee is his main priority.
He said: "I always wanted to be an international player. Who doesn't?
"My career path hasn't fitted in with international football as in I don't think Martin O'Neill watches many games in Ukraine or in India, which is understandable, so I couldn't really complain.
"But who knows? In Britain you are under the nose of the manager but I would need to have a helluva four or five months to get involved in France, the players that have qualified deserve their places.
"I will concentrate on Dundee and see what happens."
Hartley revealed the luckless McPake is determined to fight back once again from injury.
He said: "He will be out until the end of the season at least and we will see how his rehab goes.
"But James has a great mentality, he has been through this before in terms of injury.
"I spoke to him, he is in good spirits and he just wants to get back playing again."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here