England vaccine refuseniks face World Cup axe
ENGLAND head coach Gareth Southgate is considering leaving out several players from his World Cup squad due to their refusal to take the Covid vaccine. Sportsmail has learned a handful of players who would expect to make Southgate’s 23-man party for the tournament in Qatar have yet to be vaccinated which, under current regulations, means they will have to isolate for five days following their arrival in the country in November. England’s first World Cup fixture is on the tournament’s opening day, November 21, just six days after their scheduled arrival in Qatar, so any player forced to self-isolate will realistically have to sit it out as they will have barely trained with their team-mates. Southgate is therefore contemplating an unpalatable choice between leaving some vaccine refuseniks out of his squad entirely, as Chelsea and Crystal Palace have done on their pre-season tours, or going into England’s opener with reduced numbers. The issue of vaccine refusal is also affecting other World Cup sides, such as France, with Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante one of several international stars who have yet to be vaccinated. But England’s problem is more acute as they have been given an opening-day game, against Iran. Their group also includes Wales and the USA. away,’ the German explains. ‘He’s horrible to play against.
‘His intensity and the amount of repetition of intensity. This is outstanding. He caused huge trouble when he played against us and once you dig deeper into his data in his goal involvements, it’s outstanding. That is exactly what we need to raise the level of our players. That’s why Raheem was top of our list.’
Sterling is likely to be the first of many. Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly, for one, is finalising a £34m move from Napoli.
While he would never say it, you get the impression — given they finished so far behind City and Liverpool last time — Tuchel would take fourth place if you offered it to him now. Moves elsewhere have not gone unnoticed.
‘If you look at the transfer period of Tottenham with Antonio Conte, it’s maybe the strongest team they ever built,’ he says. ‘Manchester United will not give in, Arsenal will not give in, they’ve made two big signings already.’
Tuchel exhales. ‘So we are aware of the situation and try to do our best to be competitive.’
First things first, though, and a final, important question to answer: after the Middlesbrough lobby experience, who is Chelsea’s card shark?
Tuchel, the man with the odds against him, smiles before responding. ‘We will find out in Vegas,’ he says.