Today, the begins European Nations Championship (Euro 2020) with the opening match between Italy and Turkey, a competition that the fans have been waiting for a year after it was postponed from last summer due to the outbreak of the Corona virus.
And the magazine “Gala” ( GALA German ) stated that this version of the tournament comes in light of the continuing global health crisis, and although vaccination has become available in all countries of the world, a large number of football players have not yet received any dose of the vaccine, including The players participating in this tournament, a number of whom contracted the virus during the preparation period. Read also Euro 2020 The dates and schedule of the Euro matches and everything you need to know about the European Nations Championship Meet the 10 best coaches in the European Championships Watch the best matches in the history of the European Nations
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For his part, national team doctor Tim Mayer said in this context, “None of the players has been vaccinated yet, and in general, young people who are in good health have to wait for their turn until late.”
Mayer explains that the country’s vaccine distribution system does not provide any preferential advantage to football players, and there is no quantity, whether small or large, allocated to the team.
He added, “I think it is our duty to adhere to this system, which applies even to international players. This prevented us from providing the vaccine to the players before the preparation period, but now, with the tournament date approaching, it is very dangerous to vaccinate the players, because this may have side effects.”
Until this moment, the players of the “Manchevt” are still lucky that none of them were infected, unlike other teams, such as the Spanish national team.
Spain and a contingency plan
It has been confirmed that some players from the Spanish national team have been infected with the Corona virus, and the La Roja team, along with Sweden, has suffered the largest number of infections, and ironically, these two teams will meet on Monday, June 14, the start of their campaign in the tournament.
The results of the tests carried out by Sergio Busquets, captain of the Spanish national team, were positive, which is a major blow to the team coached by Luis Enrique.
Since the news of infection among the players, the Spanish Football Federation has imposed strict measures to limit mixing during training, provided that these precautionary measures continue until the opening day of the tournament. After that, a new case of injury appeared for Diego Llorente, and he left the national team camp immediately when the results of the examination were issued on Wednesday evening.
The technical staff is studying available solutions to compensate the injured players, and the laws of the European Football Association (UEFA) stipulate that any team can participate with cases of HIV infection, provided that 13 healthy players are available, including a goalkeeper.
And the authorities implemented an emergency plan to vaccinate all players of the national team with the single-dose “Johnson & Johnson” vaccine.
The players received the vaccination on Thursday, shortly before their match against Sweden on Monday, which raises concerns about side effects that could affect their performance.
In the Swedish camp, the situation also seems complicated, as two players have been confirmed to have the virus and strict measures have been taken to contain the infection, with rapid tests being carried out on a daily basis. In parallel, there is talk of a plan to bring the vaccine as quickly as Spain might do.
With the competitions approaching, it seems that most of the teams have decided not to give priority to players to get vaccines compared to the rest of society, and the fear of possible side effects and their impact on the players’ performance doubled the fears and reasons for reluctance to give players vaccinations.