Stephen Kenny says he wasn't surprised to see David McGoldrick call time on his Republic of Ireland career.
The Sheffield United striker - who turns 33 later this month - announced his international retirement on Wedensday, less than 24 hours before Kenny named his squad for this month's trio of games.
Luton Town striker James Collins effectively takes the place of McGoldrick in Kenny's 26-man squad.
"It was always his intention to retire at the end of the campaign," Kenny told his press conference.
"He is a great guy, David, he's a very popular member of this squad. I would have liked him to stay on, of course, to have a positive impact on all the attacking young players we've coming through.
"Because we've got some really good strikers coming through, and I felt he could've had an impact.
"But he has his reasons; I respect his reasons, and that's the way life is. He was excellent in our game against Slovakia, and we certainly wish him well."
Kenny didn't close the door on a potential McGoldrick return, although he feels it's unlikely due to the impact international breaks have had on his club career.
"Obviously he had an injury that he played with in Slovakia, in and around the groin region. The abductor injury, and I think it effected his training.
"Subsequently [he] lost his place at Sheffield United, because his training programme was effected and he hasn't started the last few games there.
"He's a private man, and he has his own reasons and I think we have to respect that."
Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy are both included in Kenny's squad for this month's games.
McCarthy hasn't played for Crystal Palace since exiting last month's scoreless draw with Wales at the Aviva with an injury.
Seamus Coleman returned from the hamstring injury that forced him to miss Ireland's last three outings in the 2-2 Merseyside derby draw at Goodison. However, the captain suffered a recurrence of that problem and was taken off after just 31-minutes.
Kenny expects both to get some game time for their respective clubs this week.
"James trained last Thursday for the first time with the [Palace] squad - he's been running with the physio previously - he's back training with them from last Thursday," the ex-Dundalk boss told OTB Sports.
"He's certainly expected to be in the Crystal Palace squad on Saturday for their league game. It would be great if he got some game time in that game, if he could.
"Certainly, Seamus is back training, I believe, with Everton today.
"We're delighted to have both of them in the squad, they're obviously two experienced players with a lot of quality who've played a lot of Premier League games, [and] a lot of international games.
"Seamus is our captain, James has played a lot of big international games and they're both very important for us."
