Parker was included in coach Shakes Mashaba’s squad set to travel to Equatorial Guinea for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nation in January.
Despite having notched up 68 international appearances to date, Parker has revealed that he still gets nervous ahead of the squad announcements.
“Every time the coach announces the squad, I get butterflies in the stomach because I really want to be there,” he adds.
The 29-year-old makes a return to the national team for the first time since being a part of former coach Gordon Igesund’s squad for the African Nations Championships held in South Africa in January 2014.
Parker also reveals that his absence from the squad has largely been due to him pushing himself too hard in order to be selected.
“I think I pushed myself too hard, after coming back from my injury,” he says.
“I debriefed myself, and said ‘no man, why are you putting yourself under pressure? Why are you pushing yourself in a certain way?’
“And I often found myself out of scoring positions because I was trying too hard,” adds the former FC Twente striker.
“Since I debriefed myself, I decided to look at where I could improve in my game and made effort to get into the box more, and just enjoy my football.
“I think [the call-up] just came automatically, and it came at the right time,” he rejoices.
Parker is currently Bafana Bafana’s third highest goal scorer of all time behind retired duo of Shaun Bartlett and Benni McCarthy, and will look to improve on his tally of 23 goals during the upcoming Afcon showpiece.