Stephen Kenny claims Ireland's casualty list has just as much of an affect on his side's changes as the absence of some of Belgium's top stars has for the number one ranked side in the world.
The teams meet at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, and Darragh Lenihan's hopes of adding to his two senior Ireland caps have in this international window have now been dashed.
The 28-year-old Blackburn Rovers skipper played twice for the Republic in 2018 and has been in excellent form for the Championship club, but the centre-half suffered a torn groin in last Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Reading.
"Yeah, Darragh Lenihan reported in with some groin pain from Blackburn so we had a scan in Cappagh Hospital there and we had to send him home," said Ireland boss Stephen Kenny.
"He has a tear in his groin, he hadn't trained with us, it was from the game on Saturday."
Belgium boss Roberto Martinez is not bringing any of his players with more than 50 caps to Dublin, so Kevin de Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard are among the big names who will be missing at the Aviva Stadium.
Kenny had wanted top tier opponents in this March window, ahead of the start of the Nations League in June, and he insists that given the roll call of players Martinez can still call upon, Ireland will still get that test.
Kenny commented: "I think that the players we're missing probably have a greater effect than the players they're missing.
"We're missing Adam Idah, Andrew Omobamidele, Enda Stevens who are frontline players for us. Callum O'Dowda is obviously missing.
"All of their players are from top teams in the European leagues. Like, (Romelu) Lukaku isn't fit, so they have a choice (Michy) Batshuayi, (Divlock) Origi or (Christian) Benteke as their first number 9, and only one of them will play.
"So they've got that right throughout the team. (Dedryck) Boyata would come in at the back, but he's not a young player, he's 31 and Jason Denayer.
"So those players will come in and they've already played in major tournaments.
"OK, Kevin de Bruyne is a world-class player and is great to watch, it would be great for the Irish public to see him because he is a real special talent.
"But certainly, they have a formidable team, a world number one team, and a formidable strength in depth and we're aware of that, and we don't, we have emerging players.
"So the players that we're missing have an equal effect of the players they're missing from their team.
"They're missing who they're missing, but they have a formidable team, Belgium, and they're world number one because they've been so consistent in winning matches, relentlessly."
Kenny said that he will look to use a number of players across the Belgium and Lithuania games over the next week with June in mind, although he conceded that the situation is still unsure regarding the Nations League fixtures given the war in Ukraine.
"The picture was that we'd have four games in 10 days in June in the Nations League, so obviously we're to play Ukraine, Armenia, Scotland and Ukraine again," he said.
"That was originally the idea. That would have been a big ask for the squad and we would have needed more than 11 players, we would need our full squad to participate in that kind of schedule, with the arduous travel.
"We're not sure now what the situation is now in June, whether we play Armenia twice as has been suggested, the game with Scotland and so forth.
"Obviously we hope that Ukraine can go ahead with their World Cup qualifier against Scotland, we don't know this of course and it looks unlikely now at the moment, to be honest.
"Our thoughts are with the Ukrainians at this time because they're a quality team, they got to the quarters of the European Championships.
"So there would be changes between the two games, between Saturday and Tuesday. There will be some changes, but that's to be expected."
