Michael O’Neill admitted he had hoped Jonny Evans would continue to play for Northern Ireland but said the Manchester United defender’s decision to retire from international football came as no surprise.

Evans, 36, announced on Wednesday he was calling time on a Northern Ireland career in which he earned 107 caps and captained his country on 15 occasions, leaving a big hole in the squad O’Neill named on Thursday for next week’s Nations League fixtures against Luxembourg and Bulgaria.

After Evans secured a one-year extension to remain at Old Trafford in the summer, O’Neill said in August he felt the defender still had plenty to offer his country, but he knew from regular “open and honest” conversations with Evans that international retirement was a possibility.

“It didn’t come as a surprise,” O’Neill told the PA news agency. “Obviously my preference would have been for Jonny to play on but I have to also acknowledge his decision and appreciate what he gave to the team and the country over 18 years that he’s been available to play.

“Certainly in my period he’s been a fantastic player and a fantastic lad and I understand his reasons completely.

“It’s amazing to go back to Manchester United, a club that he loves, at this stage of his career and to give himself the best chance to have as much impact and be effective for Manchester United this season he probably needs a break (during) the international weeks.”

Evans’ international retirement poses another challenge to O’Neill’s young group as they look to continue an encouraging run of results despite the recent retirements of Steven Davis and Stuart Dallas.

Evans was missing through injury in March when Northern Ireland drew away to Romania before beating Scotland in Glasgow in a pair of friendlies.

“We have to develop,” O’Neill added. “We’ve lost a lot of experienced players in the past 12 months so that’s a lot of international experience gone out of our team. This team has to learn to play without that, develop that bit of resilience and these young players have to gain experience as well.”

Northern Ireland have dropped down to League C in the Nations League, a competition in which they have rarely had much joy since its inception, but now have an opportunity in a group that pairs them with Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Belarus.

With Evans out of the equation, it was even more important to O’Neill that he was able to welcome back both Paddy McNair and George Saville, two players who have 120 caps between them.

They return along with Ali McCann, Shayne Lavery and Luke Southwood. Jamie Reid and Conor McMenamin are missing through injury while Corry Evans has not been selected as he remains without a club. Dale Taylor, Aaron Donnelly, and goalkeeper Pierce Charles have dropped down to the under-21s.

“(McNair and Saville) are very important players,” O’Neill said. “Very experienced not just on the field but around the team as well so it’s nice to have those players back, they’ve got important roles.

“Josh (Magennis) is very important as well, he’s experienced a lot of camps. We need to see as well players that have been a bit under the radar, like Jordan Thompson and Jamal (Lewis), we need Jamal fit and playing well because he has a lot of experience at this level as well.

“Those players have a lot to offer. We can’t just go and pick 11 young players because we would be overexposing them to games and to a level of opposition, we don’t want to destroy them. We’ve got to put experience into the young players but the responsibility on the older players is important.”

Northern Ireland face Luxembourg in Belfast next Thursday before taking on Bulgaria in Plovdiv on September 8.

Northern Ireland squad: Bailey Peacock-Farrell (Birmingham), Conor Hazard (Plymouth), Luke Southwood (Bolton); Paddy McNair (West Brom, on loan from San Diego), Jamal Lewis (Newcastle), Daniel Ballard (Sunderland), Ciaron Brown (Oxford), Trai Hume (Sunderland), Brodie Spencer (Huddersfield), Eoin Toal (Bolton); George Saville (Millwall), Jordan Thompson (Stoke), Ali McCann (Preston), Conor Bradley (Liverpool), Shea Charles (Sheffield Wednesday, on loan from Southampton), Isaac Price (Standard Liege), Paul Smyth (QPR), Ethan Galbraith (Leyton Orient), Ross McCausland (Rangers), Brad Lyons (Kilmarnock), Caolan Boyd-Munce (St Mirren); Josh Magennis (Exeter), Dion Charles (Bolton), Shayne Lavery (Cambridge), Callum Marshall (Huddersfield, on loan from West Ham).