Northern Ireland will play Georgia twice as well as Ukraine and Hungary in the season's first international window Before changes to the international calendar brought in for this season, Northern Ireland would previously have already played their first two fixtures by this stage of September.
Under the new fixture list, manager Michael O'Neill will name a squad on Tuesday for a four-game window, beginning with an away trip to Georgia on 25 September and concluding at home to the same opposition on 5 October.
In between they face Hungary in Belfast and Ukraine in Slovakia. While not quite unprecedented - NI faced four Nations League games in 11 days during the summer of 2022 - the condensed schedule will certainly be a challenge for Northern Ireland and other countries with smaller population bases.
Unfortunately for O'Neill, injuries have already disrupted his plans too. Using international football to reignite Premier League dreams Star player Conor Bradley has not featured for club or country since knee surgery in January and O'Neill told BBC Sport NI this month that he always suspected the injury "was going to take longer than maybe some people were thinking" before adding it would be a "bonus" to see him in a green jersey before March 2027.
The 23-year-old has missed six of Northern Ireland's past 14 games through injury, and another thanks to a one-game suspension, but in many ways it has been a case of trying to replace the irreplaceable.
The Liverpool full-back tends to play in a more advanced role for his national side on the right-side of a 3-5-2 and, while O'Neill has other natural options for down the flank, none possess the same mix of attacking drive and defensive instinct.