Jurgen Klopp has said that unvaccinated players pose a ‘constant threat’ to the sport and admits he would think twice about signing someone who had not been jabbed.
Klopp has consistently been a vocal advocate of players and fans taking up the Coronavirus vaccine, with the new wave of infections again bringing discussions about vaccinations back to the forefront of discussions.
The EFL this week announced that around 25% of their players were yet to have a first dose, a figure which is thought to be broadly aligned to that in the Premier League, with there being hesitancy among players about it’s safety.
Earlier this week, Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard said he would think twice about signing an unvaccinated player in the upcoming transfer market, and Jurgen Klopp has admitted it would ‘definitely’ be a defining factor in his decision-making process.
“We are not close to signing a player but I thought about it and yes, it will be influential, definitely,” said the Liverpool boss.
Six of this weekend’s 10 Premier League games have been called off due to numerous Covid-19 outbreaks, and Klopp opened up on the difficulties clubs are being faced with by players refusing to take the vaccine.
“If a player is not vaccinated at all, he is a constant threat for all of us,” Klopp added. “He doesn’t want to be a threat. It is not that he thinks: ‘I don’t care about the others.’ But he is [a threat] and we have to find different scenarios.
“He has to change in a different dressing room, he has to eat in a different dining room, he has to sit in a different bus, he has to drive in a different car: from an organisational point of view, it gets really messy.”
“If you really want to follow the protocols, it is incredibly difficult to do,” he added.
“If one [player] gets Covid and he [the unvaccinated player] was around him in the last four days, he will be in isolation. If we have to travel to a country to play international football and we come back, he has to self-isolate. Of course it is going to be influential. We have to do all these kind of things, like building extra buildings for unvaccinated players and it will not happen.”
