It comes following speculation Brisbane Roar defender Luke DeVere’s could return to the national team after being out of action for almost two years.

And with Victory defender James Donachie’s recent form which has kept preferred centre-back Nick Ansell out, Muscat felt he was far from being good enough to play for Australia.

“I don’t think so (not in Socceroos contention), James has a got a lot on his game that he can improve on,” Muscat said.

“I do believe when we have individuals that have a good 45 minutes, the next minute they should be in the national team… I think we should treat the ‘playing for Australia’ with a lot more respect than we do.

“From my perspective he needs to be a lot more consistent over a period of time and improve and that’s a challenge he’ll accept.”

Muscat now has a welcomed headache after choosing to field the same starting XI for three consecutive games.

Victory have won four in a row and play Adelaide United away on Saturday night with a clean bill of health.

But with the ambiguity surrounding German loanee Maxi Beister’s involvement, Muscat made it clear he would not disrupt consistency to satisfy the winger’s needs.

Beister has played seven games so far and scored one goal which came in his debut in the 3-0 win against the Wanderers. He is competing with Marco Rojas for a position on the right wing.

“I’m not going to sacrifice the group to get minutes into an individual and to get them up to speed,” Muscat said.

“It’s been difficult for him, early on he’s worked every so hard to position where his fitness is at the moment.

“Also with the performance of players in his position to get him game time, to justify it, you have to be performing better than someone else.

“Maybe he’s got to that point now where he needs a bit of a breather.

“Considering his history taking all that into consideration, maybe we need to ease off on him a little bit in training to maximise where he’ll be in a few weeks.”