Southgate: Players should be offered COVID-19 vaccine

Gareth Southgate says players should be offered a coronavirus vaccine as he believes they’re risking their health by competing and traveling overseas. 

“Our vaccination programme has been incredible … nearly all the vulnerable people have had the first vaccine,” Southgate said.

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“My view would have been we were close to getting to where it would have been acceptable for professional sportsmen to be on the list.”

“We are asking them to keep playing, they’re having to quarantine when they come back from certain situations, they’re having to take some risk going back to families and a lot of them have caught the virus because they’ve been working.”

“I was not suggesting they should have been ahead of key workers and teachers but we are getting close to the points where it could be acceptable. Actually, football could afford to save the NHS money by buying vaccines and administering them.”

Read More: Gareth Southgate explains why he dropped Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold

Gareth Southgate confirms Trent Alexander-Arnold has been dropped from the England squad for #Chelsea defender Reece James, who has been in ‘exceptional form’.

— Absolute Chelsea (@AbsoluteChelsea) March 18, 2021