Gareth Southgate: England players, professional footballers should be offered Covid-19 vaccine

ByReuters

Published 19/03/2021 at 08:16 GMT

More than half of all adults in England have had their first dose of a vaccine, with the vulnerable, key workers and elderly prioritised during the roll-out. England face San Marino in their opening 2022 World Cup qualifying match on March 25 before facing Albania (March 28) and Poland (March 31).

Gareth Southgate

Image credit: Getty Images

England manager Gareth Southgate has called for players to be offered a Covid-19 vaccine as they are risking their health by competing and travelling overseas.

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

"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.

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"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.