Video message urges players to take Covid jab

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE officials have resorted to making a video with the Government asking players to ignore myths around the Covid vaccine.

Jonathan Van-Tam, the UK’s deputy chief medical officer, has agreed to clear up misinformation around the vaccine amid growing concern about footballers refusing to get inoculated. It follows Professor Jason Leitch, Scotland’s national clinical director, hosting a Zoom conference last week urging players north of the border to get themselves double-jabbed. Professor Van-Tam recorded footage on Friday in which he answered a series of questions put to him by a Premier League representative. It is due to be shared among players imminently to avoid more of the

Covid-enforced setbacks threatening to undermine the season.

Van-Tam recorded a second video that the Premier League will share with fans to stress the importance of getting fully immunised. It is expected to be shared on Premier League social-media accounts.

The pressure on players to get the jab is due to increase this week when the Government meets to discuss plans to make vaccine passports mandatory for anyone who attends an event attracting a crowd of more than 20,000 people.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already outlined plans for the introduction of vaccine passports in Scotland, a move which SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster has stated will lead to ‘huge difficulties’ in putting into practice.

Ministers down south are expected to follow suit and make it compulsory for fans to have had two doses of vaccine amid fears that matches could become Covid hotspots.

Sources said the Department of Health and Social Care were in contact with the Premier League over the summer about the role footballers could play in encouraging young people to get immunised.

Keen football fan Van-Tam (below) had addressed a virtual meeting of the league’s captains’ group on August 2 to address myths circulating among players and underline the importance to wider society of getting the jab.

Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, said at the time that he hoped the ‘vast majority’ of players would have done so by the end of this month.

However, last week it was revealed that almost a third of players in the English Football League were not immunised and had no plans to get vaccinated.

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar

Solskjaer and Steve

Bruce, his Newcastle counterpart, admitted last month that members of their squads had also refused to get inoculated.

Bruce said players were being deterred by conspiracy theories about the supposed risks of the vaccine and the motivation for its rollout, while Solskjaer said some of his squad were ‘not sure’ about getting it. Cardiff manager Mick McCarthy said: ‘I’d like to think everybody would want to have it, but not everybody does. I don’t know about all the conspiracy theories out there. ‘Some think they are putting a chip into you and are then able to follow you around. It doesn’t seem to affect the younger guys so much. It is their choice and we can’t make them have it.

‘We’ve had a grown-up response to it, but while some players have said yes, others have said no.’ Last week, this newspaper asked each Premier League club if they wanted to join Wolves, Leeds and Brentford in revealing what proportion of their squad had been vaccinated, but none did so.

The majority of them cited medical confidentiality as the reason.

Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston said it was incumbent on footballers to set an example. ‘The evidence is overwhelming that getting vaccinated is good for your own health and helps protect others,’ he said.

‘We therefore strongly encourage everyone to get vaccinated. Sports stars are role models and particularly influential with young people.’

However, yesterday England manager Gareth Southgate said players should be given the freedom to make the call.

‘Players are old enough to make their own decisions,’ said Southgate.

‘Coaches can give advice, they can explain the benefits or otherwise but, in the end, the players have got to make their own decisions.’