Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson has stated that UEFA should ‘consider’ whether Ireland and Israel can face each other again in the future.

The Icelandic native was subjected to another difficult press conference this weekend ahead of his side’s reverse fixture with Israel on Sunday evening.

Following Ireland’s 3-0 hammering of Israel last week in Hungary, they will soon play in Serbia behind closed doors.

The two matches have been the main talking point of this extra-long international break, with Hallgrímsson asked whether its taxing nature had led him to consider resigning.

While the boss insisted: ‘It’s not on my mind right now’, he later admitted that the window has been bad for ‘players’ welfare’.

Then asked if Ireland and Israel should meet each other again, Hallgrímsson replied: ‘That’s maybe a question that is not for me to answer.’

He continued: ‘But given, now we have the possibility of looking back and seeing all the things that happened, I think UEFA must take that into consideration that they can’t have this happening again, just for players’ welfare.

‘And, yeah, but it raises awareness of the things that are going on. And, if it changes anything, I think that’s worth it. But I think it’s not for me to answer this one. It’s a good question to UEFA.’

The press conference wound up being cut short in the end after Hallgrímsson was bombarded with outlandish questions by Israeli reporters.

The Ireland boss was bizarrely questioned about the Flydubai plane hijacking that week, with the FAI press officer asking reporters to stick to football topics.

A different Israeli reporter then asked Hallgrímsson about an out-of-the-blue accusation of racial abuse from an Irish player towards an Israeli player, which the FAI PO strongly denied.

The Israeli journalist then exclaimed: ‘This is a press conference; we have been invited to ask questions,’ as they decided to end the press conference prematurely.

Notably, no UEFA match delegate was in the room, which is not customary.