But now the 30-year-old is a free man, about to play Euro 2020, the biggest occasion of his life, and Scotland’s first major football tournament after the 1998 World Cup.
Robinson, on the other hand, has been given a stern timeout, that too just as he made his England debut. On June 2, when he got his first national cap in the Lord’s Test against New Zealand, Robinson’s Twitter skeletons tumbled out of the closet like zombies in Michael Jackson’s 'Thriller'. It led to his suspension, even though he took seven wickets over two innings and scored 42.
Robinson did the sensible thing and expressed remorse.
"On the biggest day of my career so far, I am embarrassed by the racist and sexist tweets that I posted over eight years ago, which have today become public," Robinson said in a statement. "I want to make it clear that I'm not racist and I'm not sexist. I deeply regret my actions, and I am ashamed of making such remarks.”
In the run-up to Euro 2020, Gallagher too expressed contrition over the blows he rained on a person in 2013, and the eleven months he spent in prison afterwards.
"It was a dark period in my life, that's for sure," Gallagher told BBC Scotland. "It's not a circumstance I ever want to be in again, but it opened up my eyes to a lot of things and it showed me where I wanted to be in my life.
"It helped me build my confidence, after being put in a world I never expected to be in, to then come back out to play football, knowing I wanted to make a better life for myself and my family."
Many feel that Robinson’s suspension was excessive. Who has not made an off-colour joke as a teenager? But such is a world we live in, where people are either too mean or too woke. In Robinson’s case, it has been the latter.India’s R. Ashwin said he felt for Robinson, even though he did not condone his remarks.
"I can understand the negative sentiments towards what Ollie Robinson did years ago, but I do feel genuinely sorry for him being suspended after an impressive start to his test career," Ashwin tweeted.
The British PM Boris Johnson and the country’s sports and culture secretary Oliver Dowden also felt that the England Board was harsh to suspend Robinson.
“Ollie Robinson's tweets were offensive and wrong," Dowden said. "They are also a decade old and written by a teenager. The teenager is now a man and has rightly apologised. The ECB has gone over the top by suspending him and should think again."
Johnson said, "As Oliver Dowden set out, these were comments made more than a decade ago written by someone as a teenager and for which they've rightly apologised."
A disciplinary inquiry will decide on Robinson’s future. But he is only 27. Most likely, leniency will set in and he will get a chance to play for England again. Till then, he can watch Euro 2020, especially a Scot who also sank to lows but is now on a world stage in national colours.