{"id":639311,"date":"2026-09-29T07:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T07:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/639311\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T07:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T07:54:08","slug":"ireland-squad-yet-to-decide-on-whether-to-play-second-israel-match-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/639311\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland squad yet to decide on whether to play second Israel match \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> has said the Republic of Ireland<\/a> players will play the Nations League<\/a> game against Austria on Thursday at the Aviva Stadium before deciding if they will fulfil their second match against Israel<\/a> in Serbia on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Ireland beat Israel 3-0 at the Nagyerdei Stadium in Debrecen last Sunday after taking a squad vote to decide whether they should fulfil the fixture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t decided what we will do [on Sunday],\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson. \u201cWe will give the players a day off to go home and share a day with their friends, family and loved ones, and then we\u2019ll come back and prepare for the Austria game. Then we will discuss the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Gavin Cooney: Long week ahead as Ireland brace for emotional fan reaction at Aviva StadiumOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Gavin Bazunu<\/a>, who informed Hallgr\u00edmsson he was not willing to participate in the games against Israel, is available for selection against Austria but he will not travel with the squad to Ba\u010dka Topola on Friday morning. <\/p>\n

Bazunu pulled out of the first Israel game last Saturday morning, which led to the remaining 22 Irish players debating for four hours before they voted in favour of going ahead with the tie.<\/p>\n

David Courell, the association\u2019s chief executive, said the player vote returned a \u201csignificant majority\u201d to fulfil the fixture. The anonymous vote is believed to have been 14-8 in favour of playing, although Bazunu did not vote. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all uncomfortable,\u201d Hallgr\u00edmsson said. \u201dWe have different opinions and we should allow people to have different opinions. There is no one opinion that is right or wrong. We have different players in the squad that come from different backgrounds so we need to be careful that everyone has a say in decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is tough. It is just like politics where some parties just can\u2019t work together.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018We have a country 10 times better than theirs\u2019: Israel captain criticises Ireland after 3-0 defeatOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you see the tough times the players have come through, and they have come out as winners because they want to represent their country. That is their desire. I hope everybody sees that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hallgr\u00edmsson was asked if the past week has affected his enthusiasm to continue as the Ireland manager up to Euro 2028.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland beat Israel in a bleak farce that leaves everyone feeling betrayedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has definitely been testing physiologically,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not something you can take a coaching or leadership course in. You cannot manufacture a situation like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes in team building the coaches make it \u2018us against the world.\u2019 It is kind of like that for the players. When they go through this the bond between them will become stronger. All the problems in the future will seem lesser.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could have gone either way, but we got through it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson has said the Republic of Ireland players will play the Nations League game against Austria on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1399,13446,36768,4700,61,60,266856,3410,59269,1842,112],"class_list":["post-639311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-aviva-stadium","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-gavin-bazunu","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-v-israel","tag-israel","tag-nations-league","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}