WEST BROM manager Valerien Ismael has said he would rather Callum Robinson was vaccinated – but he does not want him stigmatised for his decision.
Robinson revealed last week that he has not got the Covid-19 vaccine and has no plans to do so at the moment.
The striker tested positive for the second time in August and has a high level of immunity at the moment.
But that positive case led to him missing two club games and an international, while he was only fit enough for substitute roles for two further Ireland games.
And Ismael acknowledged he would prefer if players were inoculated as he highlighted how vaccinated players are exempt from close contact protocols until unvaccinated players.
He told the Express and Star: “We can’t force anyone to take the vaccine and we need to respect the position of each person and not stigmatise him or make him look bad.
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“The only thing I can say is that I am fully vaccinated and the club provided early this week vaccination possibilities for the players so the majority of our players are vaccinated now.
“When you are a public person and you work as a football team you need to make sure that you protect yourself, protect your team-mates and protect your family because every day we are in contact with a lot of people and at the moment the only we can protect ourselves is to get the vaccine.
“The thing is to make sure we can continue to play and train, because if one player is positive and another player is not vaccinated he needs to isolate as well.”
Robinson proved a big player for Ireland in the last week with five goals in two games against Azerbaijan and Qatar.
And Ismael hopes he can bring that form into the Baggies meeting with Birmingham tomorrow.
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