Jason Knight has become the first Republic of Ireland player to publicly voice his opposition to playing Israel on Sunday.
The sides are due to meet in Debrecen, Hungary at 19:45 BST, with the return fixture in Backa Topola, Serbia on 4 October.
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 war in Gaza with a ‘Stop The Game’ campaign gathering pace.
Speaking before Thursday’s 1-0 defeat by Kosovo in Pristina, Republic stand-in skipper Dara O’Shea confirmed the players would meet on Friday to discuss their approach to Sunday’s ‘home’ game against Israel, which will have no Irish fans in attendance, before their behind-closed-doors match the following week.
“Look, it’s difficult, the manager, and Dara, and Nathan [Collins] spoke well about it, I don’t think the game should be going ahead but it is going ahead,” Knight said following the Kosovo game.
“We’ll have a deeper talk about it and what that means, we’ll get our thoughts as a group and go from there.
“I think it was a difficult one. It’s obviously big talk in Ireland. I have been focusing on my football in England in the Championship. But I knew this was coming so I had a think about it.”
The armed Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
In response, Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza, during which more than 73,000 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations (UN).
“We had chats about it with the players, and more senior players on what the step will be,” added Bristol City midfielder Knight.
“Now we’re here, we can have a really in depth talk of what that means and what the consequences are. We’ll do that [on Friday] and go from there.
“I am quite experienced. None of us have gone through this scenario before but I’d like to think I’m experienced, thick skin and can get through most things and that is what I will try and do.
“I’ll try and focus on the football as much as I can. I’ll give my view and my thoughts on when I see fit, but I’ll be trying to focus on the football as much as possible.”