Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp wants medical assurances before he signs a player
Jurgen Klopp has warned potential transfer targets that Liverpool will be wary of signing players who are not vaccinated against Covid-19.
Numerous Premier League matches have been postponed in recent weeks due to a fresh outbreak of the virus in the United Kingdom.
Whereas many managers have been diplomatic when asked for their views of vaccination, Klopp has been a vocal proponent of the programme.
And the German has now affirmed that Liverpool will ask about a player’s vaccination status before they decide whether or not to sign him.
“Yes, it will be influential,” he said. “Let’s take our situation, if a player is not vaccinated at all, he’s a constant threat for all of us. Of course, he doesn’t want to be a threat and it’s not like he thinks: ‘I don’t care about the others,’ but he is.
“So, we have to find different scenarios. He’ll have to change in a different dressing room, eat in a different dining room, sit in a different bus or a different car. From an organisation’s point of view, it’s a real mess.
“If you really want to follow the protocols, it’s incredibly difficult to do. If one gets Covid and he was around him in the last four days, he will be in isolation.
“If we have to travel to a country where we play international football and we come back, he has to self-isolate so of course, it will be influential.
“So, we’ll have to do extra building for unvaccinated players and it will not happen, hopefully not. Hopefully that won’t be necessary in the future.”
The Premier League has not released any vaccination data since October, when 68% of players were shown to have received two doses.
Liverpool are thought to be one of few Premier League clubs at which virtually every player is double vaccinated.
