Although he has retired from Test rugby, former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper has not completely ruled out the possibility of making an international comeback later this year.

The 33-year-old openside flanker is a respected figure in the game as he represented Australia in 124 Tests between 2012 and 2023 and captained his country 64 times.

Missed out on Wallabies’ 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign

However, his Test career came to an abrupt end in 2023 when then Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones omitted him from his squad for that year’s Rugby World Cup in France in controversial fashion.

Following that setback Hooper had an ill-fated sevens stint, which saw him miss out on Australia’s squad for their campaign at last year’s Olympic Games in Paris.

He then announced his retirement from international rugby last June but kept the door open on playing at club level and last month he signed a contract with Japanese League One outfit Toyota Verblitz for the remainder of their campaign, a side he played for back in 2021.

Toyota Verblitz are coached by former All Blacks head coaches Sir Steve Hansen and Ian Foster and it was the former who called Hooper following an injury to Springboks back-row star Pieter-Steph du Toit.

Since then, Hooper has played two matches in Japan this year, one for Toyota Verblitz’s second team and another one for their senior side.

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He revealed that there would have to be “some significant circumstances” for him to make a return for the Wallabies.

‘There would have to be some significant circumstances that would change that’

“I would have to be playing some great footy to be considered, and two, I retired from international rugby,” he told Stan Sport’s Inside Line podcast. “I know a lot of people have changed those plans but there would have to be some significant circumstances that would change that.

“The level of commitment to play at Test level is very, very high, and I am unsure if I have that level of commitment to put the body on the line and have the intent that you need to have to be a part of that series.

“It’s great to be competing in 15s, I struggled in sevens on multiple levels, it’s a bloody hard game. To come back to 15s, I was rusty but it felt like home being on the 15s field.

“The intention isn’t to come up here and reboot a career so I am taking this very much a week at a time which we need to do up here on a team level … definitely keeping options open but I haven’t come up here with a set agenda.”

Hooper also revealed that his communication with Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt was restricted to a “brief text” when he joined Toyota Verblitz.

READ MORE: Exeter Chiefs: Rob Baxter addresses transfer links with Springboks and Wallabies stars

Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/michael-hooper-there-would-have-to-be-some-significant-circumstances-to-make-wallabies-return