Michael O'Neill insists there is no drama in Josh Magennis' absence from Northern Ireland's latest squad. The veteran striker is currently on a standby list for this month's friendlies against Switzerland and Sweden.
He is joined by goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell, defender Kofi Balmer, midfielder Caolan Boyd-Munce and forward Jamie Reid.
O'Neill named his 25-man squad on Tuesday, which includes a first call-up for Ross County striker Ronan Hale who has completed his switch from the Republic of Ireland.
Magennis - who has impressed for Exeter City this season - was one notable omission, but O'Neill feels the two friendlies offer him an opportunity to look at other players.
He said: "This is not a competitive game. I know what Josh Magennis gives me so I don’t need to bring him along to a squad in March to find that out.
"I’m going to give those minutes to Ronan Hale or Dale Taylor or Lee Bonis because they are what we need to look at going forward.
"Josh will be 35 in the summer so we have to be mindful of that plus I don’t think it’s great to bring an older player away when you are probably not going to give him any minutes and I explained that to Josh. It’s nothing other than that."
O'Neill added: "You could say why didn’t you make the squad 26 players but that makes training more difficult, you are rotating more players so all of that goes into the thought process. I think if you looked at the players, Dale (Taylor) has had a very good season at Wigan, Ronan (Hale) the same at Ross County and Lee Bonis is on nine goals at Den Haag.
"Dion (Charles) is on seven goals and has moved from Huddersfield (from Bolton) and maybe it has been a little bit tricky since he went there and now the manager has changed so I think it is important we pick him up and keep him in a good place and Callum Marshall has had a good loan at Huddersfield.
"Josh has been a big part of this squad for a long time but I left David Healy out to invest in a young Josh Magennis so I have to invest in these players as well."
Meanwhile, O'Neill admits it is unfortunate not to have Conor Bradley available for this month's games. The Liverpool defender is still recovering from a muscle injury picked up playing against Aston Villa on February 19.
"Of course it is but we shouldn’t just focus on one player being out. I think we have to be mindful of Conor’s age and his experience," he said.
"When any of the younger players are out it is a big blow and Conor has been fantastic. He was great for us in the Nations League and loves coming away to play. What I do see in him and other young players is their personality grows within the squad but they can only do that if they are available to come.
"He’s disappointed to be missing and be part of the squad and the opportunity to play. He’s had to be patient at Liverpool at times this season in terms of minutes so he would have looked at this as an opportunity to play games and play back to back games but unfortunately he picked up an injury."
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