Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
KLOPP: UNVAXXED PLAYERS A CONSTANT THREAT AND I WON’T SIGN ANY IN TRANSFER WINDOW
BY
JURGEN KLOPP has insisted Liverpool will not sign unvaccinated players next month, as they represent a “constant threat” to the rest of the squad.
Earlier this week, the Reds boss revealed that everyone working at the club’s Kirkby training base – including players – had been doublejabbed, and also intended to receive a booster. And, with Covid cases on the rise across the UK due to Omicron, Klopp has no intention of allowing an unvaccinated player into Liverpool’s bubble.
He said: “We are not close to signing a player but, yes, it would be influential, definitely.
“If a player is not vaccinated at all, he is a constant threat for all of us. He doesn’t want to be a threat, of course, it is not that he thinks, ‘Oh my God, I don’t care about the others,’ but he is 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. If someone gets Covid and he was in the last four days around them, 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 – all these kinds of things.
“Of course it will be influential. We have to do all these kinds of things, like building extra buildings for unvaccinated players, and it will not happen. Hopefully, it will not be
necessary in the future.” Klopp was also asked about his concerns over Liverpool’s upcoming FA Cup home clash with Shrewsbury, in light of the news 25 percent of EFL players do not intend to get vaccinated.
But the German’s biggest worry is the possibility of his side ultimately being handed an away tie that forces them to travel to a less Covid-secure Football League ground. He added: “We had that thought through. Now, we play at last year already, we had away home so that’s fine, we play games. I don’t know 100 percent outside so that’s fine as well. but I don’t think a lot of things “We have constantly to think have changed since about other things
We’re not building then. besides football and
extra buildings just
“We go there to an for players who are that’s obviously FA Cup away game, not vaccinated pretty special change in really small because we have dressing rooms, all these kinds of enough football already to think things – that was the situation about. last year. It’s just not 100 percent “I’m not concerned that we play a Football League team at home, but others play away and I’m not sure how it’s sorted.
“If we sort the problem just for Liverpool, the problem is not sorted because it’s still out there.
“We have to sort the general problem and that’s why I mentioned it’s not only about ‘stopping the league or continuing like usual’, there are things in between we have to sort.”