Klopp: I would never sign an unvaccinated player

Jurgen Klopp has clearly stated that he will not sign a unvaccinated player at Liverpool.

The German has been a measured voice of reason throughout the pandemic which has spread throughout this pandemic over the past 18 months.

While many clubs throughout the Premier League are keeping the Covid status close to their chest, Klopp was more than obliging in saying that every member of the back room staff and playing squad have been double jabbed and will receive a booster shot in the near future.

With January just around the corner, attention always turns to the transfer window and while Liverpool seem almost certain to be unwilling participants when it comes to additions, Klopp stated that an unvaccinated player would never be in his plans and his reasoning was precise.

The Mirror reported the manager as saying:

“We are not close to signing a player but, yes, it would be influential, definitely.

“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.

“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 will 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.”

There is another potential issue on the horizon regarding the FA Cup.

While Liverpool’s 3rd round FA Cup tie with Shrewsbury is at Anfield, Klopp biggest concern is when they get drawn against a lower league side on the road, adding to the fact that over a quarter of players in the EFL refuse to get vaccinated.

“We had that last year already, we had away games. I don’t know 100 percent but I don’t think a lot of things have 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 percent thought through. Now, we play at home so that’s fine, we play outside so that’s fine as well.

“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.”

As usual with Klopp, he is one to not just look at his own situation, but the whole picture when it comes to the game itself.

“I’m not concerned that 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 we have to sort.”