diff --git a/core/frontend/services/theme-engine/i18n/i18n.js b/core/frontend/services/theme-engine/i18n/i18n.js
index 9b19402ba3..20aab9d7f8 100644
--- a/core/frontend/services/theme-engine/i18n/i18n.js
+++ b/core/frontend/services/theme-engine/i18n/i18n.js
@@ -49,6 +49,10 @@ class ThemeI18n extends i18n.I18n {
         return [this.basePath, this._activetheme, 'locales'];
     }
 
+    _handleUninitialisedError(key) {
+        throw new errors.IncorrectUsageError({message: `Theme translation was used before it was initialised with key ${key}`});
+    }
+
     _handleFallbackToDefault() {
         this._logging.warn(`Theme translations falling back to locales/${this.defaultLocale()}.json.`);
     }
diff --git a/core/shared/i18n/i18n.js b/core/shared/i18n/i18n.js
index 73339d2324..bab9f01fd2 100644
--- a/core/shared/i18n/i18n.js
+++ b/core/shared/i18n/i18n.js
@@ -255,7 +255,8 @@ class I18n {
     }
 
     _handleUninitialisedError(key) {
-        throw new errors.IncorrectUsageError({message: `i18n was used before it was initialised with key ${key}`});
+        this._logging.warn(`i18n was used before it was initialised with key ${key}`);
+        this.init();
     }
 
     _handleFormatError(err) {