Republic of Ireland winger Chiedozie Ogbene has urged the public to not “put the pressure on us” over the campaign to boycott the upcoming Nations League games against Israel.
The sides are due to meet in Debrecen, Hungary on Sunday before the return fixture in Backa Topola, Serbia on 4 October (both 19:45 BST).
Since the sides were drawn together in Group B3, there has been increasing calls in Ireland to withdraw from the games due to the ongoing situation in Gaza with a ‘Stop The Game’ campaign gathering pace.
In the lead up to Thursday’s 1-0 defeat by Kosovo in Pristina stand-in captain Dara O’Shea confirmed the players would meet on Friday to discuss their approach to Sunday’s ‘home’ game for Israel, which will have no Irish fans in attendance before their behind-closed-doors match the following week.
“I’m aware of the feelings towards it,” Ogbene told RTE Sport after Thursday’s loss.
“It’s a complicated and very difficult task. I just want to say and I hope people don’t put the pressure on us to be answering difficult situations.
“There are people who can make the decisions and you can’t rely on footballers to make those decisions. That’s my feeling on it but as a group we will look at it and will see what we’re going to do.”