Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp labels unvaccinated players ‘a threat’ and vows not to sign them

Klopp happy for Liverpool to keep playing — for now

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Jurgen Klopp plans to avoid signing any unvaccinated players in January with the Liverpool manager branding those who have not received a jab a “constant threat” to the rest of his first-team squad. Klopp is a passionate supporter of the COVID-19 vaccine and feels getting it should be mandatory, at least from a moral perspective.

Klopp has confirmed that “99 per cent” of his Liverpool squad are fully vaccinated as the United Kingdom battles with rising cases of Covid again due to the Omicron variant.

Reds trio Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Curtis Jones missed the Anfield win over Newcastle on Thursday night due to suspected positive COVID-19 tests, while six of 10 Premier League matches – as of Sunday morning – have been postponed this weekend due to outbreaks.

With the January transfer window fast approaching and Liverpool linked with a host of players as is custom, Klopp has said he will ensure any new signings are fully vaccinated in order to enter the Merseyside club’s bubble.

The vaccine helps reduce the risk of getting and spreading the virus and also prevent those inflicted by it from getting seriously ill with their bodies better able to tackle the symptoms of Covid.

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The German coach however dismissed any suggestions that the Premier League title challengers currently have any deals lined up for next month, though they could lose all of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita for several weeks due to the African Cup of Nations.

“We are obviously not close to signing a player so I did not think about it but then I thought about it and yes, it will be influential, definitely,” Klopp said when asked if the stance of transfer targets towards the vaccine might affect their suitability for Liverpool. 

“In a situation like this, let’s take our situation, 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 and 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 one gets Covid and he was in the last four days around him, 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 is going to 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. That’s it.”

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It emerged this week that around 25 per cent of players in the English Football League – the Championship, League One and League Two – do not intend to get vaccinated.

Liverpool will soon come up against League One opponents in Shrewsbury Town, although the Shrews were able to put their Saturday match against Cheltenham on, which they won 3-1, with manager Steve Cotterill confirming his players are “having either second injections or boosters now”.

Asked about the possibility of a replay away at Shrewsbury’s New Meadow, where they played pre-Covid in January 2020, Klopp added: “We had that last year already, we had away games. I don’t know 100 per cent but I don’t think a lot of things changed since then. 

“We go there to an FA Cup away game, change in really small dressing rooms, all these kinds of things, that was the situation last year. It’s just not 100 per cent thought through. 

“Now, we play at home [against Shrewsbury] so that’s fine, we play outside so that’s fine as well, it’s just all these different things. 

“We have constantly to think about other things besides football and that’s obviously pretty special because we have enough football already to think about. 

“I’m not concerned we could not play them but we had that situation, 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 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 that we have to sort.”

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