Klopp Claims COVID Vaccination Status To Be “Influential” In Transfer Decisions

The end of December means the start of the winter madness in the Premier League. It also means that preparations for the January transfer window are already well underway behind the scenes.

Jurgen Klopp was asked recently if he believed that a player’s COVID vaccination status would have an impact on the club’s decision to sign him. Klopp indicated that this information would be ‘influential’ in their thinking and then laid out the reasons for this.

The Reds are currently missing four players due to suspected COVID positivity — among them Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara, and Curtis Jones. It is unknown if any or all of those players are vaccinated. However, what is certain is that being vaccinated greatly lowers a person’s risk of getting COVID and also spreading it.

Logistically, Klopp pointed out that right now, if a player is unvaccinated, “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.”

The inconvenience combined with the risk of those players coming into close contact with their teammates as positivity rates skyrocket over the winter may lead to, not just Liverpool, but many teams adding vaccination to their list of requirements for new recruits.