Gavin Bazunu tells Irish squad he does not want to participate in games against Israel

Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu has told the Irish squad he does not want to participate in the Republic of Ireland’s Uefa Nations League games against Israel tomorrow and next week. Some other players are understood to be considering whether to join him in withdrawing from the fixtures. The players’ deliberations led to an extraordinary delay to Ireland’s scheduled press conference and training session at the Nagyerdei stadium in Debrecen. The press conference, scheduled for 10.15am local time, was postponed at just 19 minutes notice. READ MOREThe Irish and Israeli media had assembled at the stadium on Saturday morning when members of the Irish media were informed via a WhatsApp message that the press conference would be delayed by up to two hours, and would instead be held after the team’s training session. The Uefa match delegate was informed of the delay at the same time and was not given a reason. The training session, scheduled for 11am, was also delayed, and the Irish team were still at the team hotel as of 11.30am local time, with the players meeting among themselves. The Irish players first met on Friday to exchange their views on playing against Israel, though a squad-wide boycott was not initially on the agenda. The meeting was intended as a means of arriving at a formal position regarding how to proceed around the match and whether or not to stage a protest in advance of the game. The FAI has remained adamant all week that the game would go ahead, but their communications department was silent as the media sat in an otherwise empty press conference room. Ireland’s head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson acknowledged earlier this week that the players do not all share the same opinion or the same strength of opinion. The players were expected to issue a statement affirming their position on the match in advance of the press conference, but it did not arrive, which is understood to be down to a lack of unanimity in the Irish squad.