‘We have to respect individual wishes’ – Some Ireland players have decided not to take the vaccine

"Players are men as individuals."

Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has admitted that some of the Ireland players are not vaccinated. Covid outbreaks and the restrictions that come with that come with that, have hampered Kenny's tenure as manager since taking the job. However, he still insists that taken the vaccine is a personal choice, and out of his hands.

"A number of players have had vaccines, some haven't, some have had one. "In England the AstraZeneca has a long period between the first and second doses, some players have been caught after the first one and some players decided not to get it.

"It has happened with one player who only had one vaccine, he hadn't had the second and had to isolate. We'd want everyone vaccinated, but players are men as individuals, they have the right to make their own decisions and you have to respect that. "In an ideal world we'd prefer to have everyone vaccinated but we have to respect the individual wishes. "Alan [Browne] is a close contact so he hasn't been involved with Preston but he also had an injury a glute injury, we're not ruling out the idea that Alan and Callum could be involved for the second or third games, we're exploring that and seeing how it goes. "Callum's had a terrific start to the season, I have been at a couple of his games, I have seen him score in the Hawthorns last week and the opening game of the season against Bournemouth, West Brom have had a flying start, himself and Dara O'Shea. "He initially missed part of the camp when he was a close contact and then he got Covid, ahead of the November camp, so to get it twice is incredibly unlucky."