‘This isn’t right’: Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson voices player welfare fears
Liverpool’s captain, Jordan Henderson, is concerned that player welfare is not being taken seriously enough. The Premier League announced on Monday its intention to continue with the scheduled matches over the Christmas period, even though there were 90 confirmed coronavirus cases among players and staff last week.
A shareholders’ meeting involving representatives from all 20 clubs came to a collective decision to carry on, despite six of the 10 games last weekend being off because of Covid outbreaks.
“I don’t think people can appreciate how intense it is until you actually see it first-hand,” Henderson told BBC Sport. “Football to us is everything and we want to be able to perform at the highest level every time we set foot on the pitch. And unfortunately, in this period it is difficult to do that.
“That has been like this for a few years now and it has been difficult but then, on top of that, you chuck in Covid and it becomes even harder and even worse. I am concerned that nobody really takes player welfare seriously.
“I think decisions get made – of course we want to play as footballers, we want to get out there and play – but I am worried about player welfare and I don’t think anybody does take that seriously enough, especially in this period, when Covid is here.
“We will try to have conversations in the background and try to have some sort of influence going forward, but at the minute I don’t feel the players get the respect they deserve in terms of having somebody being able to speak for them independently and having the power to say actually this isn’t right for player welfare.”
Liverpool were without a number of key players for last Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Tottenham, including Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Thiago Alcântara. Including that game, they have five games in two weeks.
Liverpool’s assistant manager, Pepijn Lijnders, has described the decision to press on with the Premier League’s festive schedule as “absurd” and warned it will increase the risk to players’ health.