England manager Gareth Southgate suggests footballers should be vaccinated against Covid-19

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Gareth Southgate believes the UK’s Covid-19 vaccination programme has got to the stage where it could be acceptable sports people are moved up the list, and broached that football could “afford to save the NHS money”.

The England manager also pointed to the occupational “risks” that players have to face, as they have effectively been asked to keep much of the population entertained, as well as the potential safeguarding of tournaments.

Choosing his words carefully, Southgate admitted the current suspension of new vaccinations for April potentially changes the situation, but stated it was now something to keep in mind. Southgate highlighted the number of precautions players have to take, such as going back to families after travel, as well as the fact so many have contracted Covid-19 from working.

“I suppose the situation changes so quickly,” Southgate said. “I was thinking ahead of the last few days and our vaccination programme has been incredible as 25 million people have had one and I think nearly all the vulnerable people have had the first vaccine, and my view would have been we were close to getting to the point where it would have been acceptable for professional sportsmen to be on that list.

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

“I was not in any way suggesting they should have been ahead of key workers and teachers who should be ahead but we are getting close to the point where it could be acceptable and actually, football could afford to save the NHS money by buying the vaccines and administering them. They could take the weight off the NHS and it would stop a lot of the restrictions and money we are wasting – not wasting because we are spending it for the right reasons – but we are spending a lot of money on testing and extra coaches for travel. That might be thrown up in the air because of the bump we have hit on supply ... but we are moving to the stage where we are asking athletes be put into situations where they are more likely to catch the virus than others and we have a responsibility to them as well.”

This international break has thrown up more Covid-related complications that are going to have to be solved going forward, with Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham potentially denied his call-up due to German restrictions, and Poland possibly being without Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski for England’s third game of next week’s schedule. Such absences do raise issues of sporting integrity, but Southgate insisted it is merely about the compromises necessary for all competitions in this situation.

“Unfortunately, the travel issues are going to prevent us from having [Bellingham] with us but those things can change quickly and we did not want to take him out of our squad if there is still a possibility that he can be with us,” Southgate said. “We are not going to put him or the club under undue pressure. We have a great relationship with Dortmund. They have been fabulous for his development, The games with Sevilla in particular were stand-out in a Champions League knockout tie and at that age to play with such maturity and to have such an impact and to be bold enough to play in the manner he did is a hugely exciting talent.

“Every competition is suffering, we've had Champions League games where home advantage is being put to one side because teams event to play on neutral venues. It's very difficult because of the calendar to delay games, these decisions were taken at the beginning of the season. The beginning of the season was the opportunity to look at the calendar and take the pressure off the calendar, that passed so now we are where we are.

“It's a difficult situation to lose a player through a quarantine situation, but we're losing a lot because of injury, which is a consequence of the load of games as well. So it's not directly linked but it's for similar reasons really it's to do with the unique situation we find ourselves in and unfortunately every team is having to adapt.”