Thomas Tuchel, the Chelsea head coach, has insisted that he will not join the “hunt” for unvaccinated footballers, as he continues to wrestle with the impact of last week’s coronavirus outbreak at the club.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, Aston Villa’s Steven Gerrard and Newcastle United’s Eddie Howe have admitted they would think twice before signing players who refused the Covid-19 vaccine.
With rates so high among clubs and games having to be postponed, non-vaccinated players could be made to travel separately to games from their team-mates and face further segregation in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus within football.
But Tuchel said: “I don’t want to get involved in pointing fingers and starting the hunt for non-vaccinated people. This is a choice to make. Leave it there.
“I mean, you can have an opinion, I can have an opinion, but a player can also have an opinion.
“Then there can be regulations around this, like when you arrive at work, your employer can create an environment where you are not allowed to be in the building if you are not vaccinated.
“This can happen, so you have to adapt to it and you have to live with the consequences. But we cannot force people to get vaccinated, and I will not change my opinion on that. I am not the guy to comment on that, I am not the expert here.
“There are experts in this country, all over the rest of Europe. Ask them and ask me, please, about football.
“I will not get involved. I am vaccinated. I took the decision for me. That’s it.”
Asked if the subject of vaccinations was causing an issue within clubs, Tuchel added: “You know that it’s causing an issue. But it’s not that we have all unvaccinated.
“We have vaccinated players who are positive. So I’ll leave it there. If you don’t want to leave it there, it’s OK for you.”
Tuchel still has a number of players out with Covid and injuries ahead of tonight’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Brentford and the Premier League trip to Aston Villa on St Stephen’s Day.
“I would like to play against us right now,” Tuchel said. “We take huge risks and at some point it can happen that you don’t have the same results you would have if you don’t have your whole squad available.
“You can handle these situations once, but the problem is still there. They are off for 10 days and these 10 days we have three matches, so it will catch us.
“At some point it will catch us and it will backfire on us.
“It’s a given even if we try hard not to accept, and we will keep on trying hard not to accept, and fighting against all odds. This is what we will do.”
Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]