She was axed from the team in 2014 and was overlooked by the team management for the 2014 Women's Hockey World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.[6] Following the 2016 Summer Olympics where the Dutch claimed silver medal, the team management intended to groom youngsters into the team and Malou was surprisingly included in the national team in late 2016. She received a phone call from the head coach Alyson Annan in late 2016 while Malou was attending internships to join the hospitals after completing her medicine studies.[7]
She made a comeback return to the national side after a gap of nearly three years in 2017 and was also the member of the Netherlands side which managed to defend the Hockey World League in 2017 after defeating New Zealand 3–0 in the final.[8] Malou Pheninckx played a key role for the Netherlands women's team which claimed victorious over Japan 5–0 in the 2017 International Festival of Hockey tournament, which was their first International Festival of Hockey tournament title victory.[9] She also scored a winning goal in the final against Japan. She too was also the part of the Dutch team which secured its 8th World Cup title after emerging victorious at the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup beating Ireland to record an emphatic 6–0 victory in the final.[10][11][12] She also scored a winning goal in the final.[13]