COLD, HARD VAX

West Brom boss to outline ‘benefits’ of jab to Robinson

WEST BROM manager Valerien Ismael will speak to Callum Robinson about the ‘protection’ vaccination against Covid-19 provides.

The in-form Ireland striker, fresh from five goals in two games, became one of the first high-profile footballers to reveal he hadn’t been vaccinated last week — although he didn’t explain why.

Asked yesterday if he had spoken to Robinson, Ismael said, ‘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.’

Pressed on Robinson’s stance, Ismael accepted: ‘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 Ismael was keen to stress the benefits of being vaccinated. ‘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 isolate 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.’