West Brom boss Valerien Ismael will speak with Callum Robinson over the vaccine debacle
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West Brom boss Valerien Ismael will speak with Callum Robinson over the vaccine debacle

CALLUM ROBINSON'S club manager Valerien Ismael will discuss the forward’s hesitation to get the vaccine with him. The West Brom boss wants to chat about the protection vaccination against COVID-19 provides.

Robinson has five goals in two games for Ireland, but came under fire from the media and fans on social media as he confessed he hadn't got the vaccine on the eve of the Azerbaijan game last week.

Ismael was asked on Thursday if he had spoken to Robinson, he replied with,

‘Not yet — we will speak about it. We will have time to speak, he only came back yesterday from international duty so it’s been difficult.’

Again pushed to explain Robinson’s stance, Ismael conceded: ‘It’s a personal choice.

‘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,’ he said

But the West Brom boss did say that being vaccinated was beneficial,

When you are a public person and you work at a football team you need to make sure you protect yourself, protect your team-mates and protect your family because every day we are in contact with a lot of people.

‘At the moment, the only way we can protect ourselves is to get the vaccine. That’s my own thought on this.

‘The second side 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 be isolated as well.’

‘We don’t need the training ground being shut down for two weeks, that could be massive for us,’ he added.

‘I have spoken two times with the squad to explain the advantages and why it is important to get the vaccination. But we cannot force anyone. We can only make them aware it’s important, it’s very important.’

‘Such a decision is personal and I understand this. But we try, we reinforce the message every day, every week. We say it’s important to get the jab,’ he added.

West Brom welcome midlands club Birmingham to the Hawthorns tonight at 8.00 in a game that Robinson will be looking to add to his impressive goal tally.