McNair among returning NI players for Nations League
Central defender Paddy McNair has 69 caps for Northern Ireland
- Published
Paddy McNair and Shayne Lavery are among the players restored to the Northern Ireland squad for next month's Uefa Nations League double-header.
Experienced defender McNair, who joined West Brom on loan this summer from San Diego FC, is back after missing the summer friendlies against Spain and Andorra.
Striker Lavery returns on the back of signing for Cambridge United this summer.
Also returning to Michael O'Neill's 25-man squad are goalkeeper Luke Southwood and midfielders Brad Lyons, Ali McCann and George Saville.
Lyons' last international appearance came against Slovenia a year ago but the Kilmarnock player is fit again after having missed out on the last three squads through injury.
O'Neill's squad announcement comes less than 24 hours after Manchester United defender Jonny Evans announced his international retirement.
Following Evans' retirement, McNair and Exeter City striker Josh Magennis are the only members of the squad named on Thursday who were part of Northern Ireland's Euro 2016 campaign.
In addition to Evans' absence, several players who were in the summer squad are missing, including Stevenage striker Jamie Reid and St Mirren winger Conor McMenamin, while Dale Taylor, Aaron Donnelly and Pierce Charles have switched to the under-21 squad.
Corry Evans, who returned from a lengthy injury lay-off in June, is not included as the 34-year-old searches for a new club.
Northern Ireland open their Nations League C3 campaign at home to Luxembourg on 5 September (19:45 BST) before facing Bulgaria in Plovdiv three days later (17:00).
Northern Ireland squad
Goalkeepers: Bailey Peacock-Farrell (Birmingham City), Conor Hazard (Plymouth Argyle), Luke Southwood (Bolton Wanderers).
Defenders: Paddy McNair (West Bromwich Albion, on loan from San Diego FC), Jamal Lewis (Newcastle United), Daniel Ballard (Sunderland), Ciaron Brown (Oxford United), Trai Hume (Sunderland), Brodie Spencer (Huddersfield Town), Eoin Toal (Bolton Wanderers).
Midfielders: George Saville (Millwall), Jordan Thompson (Stoke City), Alistair McCann (Preston North End), Conor Bradley (Liverpool), Shea Charles (Sheffield Wednesday, on loan from Southampton), Isaac Price (Standard Liege), Paul Smyth (Queens Park Rangers), Ethan Galbraith (Leyton Orient), Ross McCausland (Rangers), Brad Lyons (Kilmarnock), Caolan Boyd-Munce (St Mirren).
Forwards: Josh Magennis (Exeter City), Dion Charles (Bolton Wanderers), Shayne Lavery (Cambridge United), Callum Marshall (Huddersfield Town, on loan from West Ham United).
'Last campaign was challenging'
O'Neill, who is in his second stint has manager of the national team, has lost a lot of experience in the last 12 months with Evans now joining Stuart Dallas and Steven Davis in international retirement but has put an emphasis on youth in the last few squads.
"We have a young group of players, predominantly under 24 and some a lot younger than that, and I think we have a team that is developing," O'Neill told BBC Sport NI.
"That's the most important thing that people see that. We haven’t played here [at Windsor Park] since November so we have to come back here with a mindset and attitude that we want to put on a really good performance."
Only four of the current squad have played over 50 times for Northern Ireland with eight of the 25 players selected in single figures for international caps.
"The last campaign was challenging. We made it difficult for ourselves with some narrow defeats, and we also saw the introduction of a lot of players and players leaving the international scene or being unavailable to us.
"We’ve lost a lot of experience and you can’t replace that. There’s no way to replace that other than to put players on the pitch to build their own CV’s and their own international careers, and that’s what we’ll continue to do, so I like working with this group.
"It’s a very, very young group but I think there is a lot of potential in it."