Evergreen back-rower Craig Fitzgibbon admits his inclusion in Australia's 24-man World Cup squad left him in a state of disbelief.
The 31-year-old's representative revival, which saw him feature for NSW in this season's State of Origin series after a three year absence, continued on Tuesday when the veteran of 15 Tests was named in Ricky Stuart's team.
"I'm just over the moon, you never know when the opportunity's going to come to play for Australia and I probably thought it had passed me by," Fitzgibbon told Sportal.
"Just to be a part of it, we just had a fitting in the uniform again and I'm just so proud to put the colours back on."
"It was a little bit of a shock to be honest when I looked at the quality of back-rowers in the squad but I think maybe the Origin series helped me get over the line."
Fitzgibbon, who broke into the top grade back in 1998 with the Illawarra Steelers, rates his 11th season as a professional as his most memorable.
"In terms of personal achievements it's going to be pretty hard to beat," he said.
"Obviously your priority is to win a competition every year and you set your goals and if you win a premiership all the personal accolades seem to come in around that."
"I'm a huge benefactor of the (Roosters) doing so well this year and thankfully for me, I don't know, someone's looking after me at the moment."
Fitzgibbon played down his chances of breaking into the Kangaroos starting XIII insisting just being a part of the squad is a bonus.
But despite a gruelling campaign for the Roosters, which saw him play the full 80 minutes in eight of his 22 appearances, Fitzgibbon declared himself ready to answer the call when needed.
"I could play tomorrow if I had to," he enthused.
"Obviously it's rare for me to be feeling this good at this stage of the year and I think that had a lot to do with me playing and lasting most of the year … the body's feeling good and so is the mind."