Instead of talking to his players about the upcoming fixtures, and their current poor form, Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta has to devote another part of his working hours talking and preaching to the players to get vaccinated. After it was revealed that captain Granit Xhaka was positive for Covid-19 but before that refused to get vaccinated, the debate started again, and there are other Arsenal footballers who are still not vaccinated.Arteta has been talking enough – now it’s time for his team to do the talking on the pitchTherefore, the Spaniard again had to emphasize the importance of the Covid protection.“Obviously, it will limit certain aspects if they don’t get vaccinated, because we don’t want to expose ourselves in certain things. For example, travelling. If they are not vaccinated and they travel or socialise in certain situations, obviously the risk increases a lot. We don’t want that exposure with any of our players. Because, at the end, the team and the club will pay the price” said Arteta.17:00 (1.55) ARSENAL (4.00) NORWICH (6.25)Arsenal’s coach was keen to point out the reasons why the players should be vaccinated as soon as possible.“We are trying to explain all of the reasons why we believe this is the right thing to do. First of all how it will protect the club, and secondly the team-mates, the environment they are around and the exposure they will have if they don’t do it. We have to be on the same page and understand all the facts. The personal facts that someone can have are for many different reasons. Maybe it’s health reasons, a contradiction that he has, the way he’s been educated or something he believes. The other thing is – what is best for the club and the team to try minimise any risk of the player contracting the virus or passing it to anyone else? But it’s a personal matter, not an obligation, and we have to respect that” concluded the Spaniard.Newcastle keeper on Covid-19: ‘I couldn’t swallow and I’ve lost 10 kilos’Among current crop of players in the Premier League, Newcastle reserve keeper Karl Darlow is the latest example of a perfectly healthy sportsman who suffered badly from Covid.”It was probably two or three weeks, even after I’d been diagnosed, that I was still going home sleeping in the afternoon for two, three hours and then after probably 9-10 hours at night. I had nearly every single symptom, I think. The hot and cold, diarrhoea, everything, it wasn’t nice. Weight wise, I wasn’t able to eat or drink for three or four days, so I ended up losing about five kilos. I just thought it wouldn’t have that massive effect on me if I did catch it. I think there are a lot of people that are thinking that way but there are numerous cases now that are younger people and unfortunately, people are not recovering and others are taking a substantial amount of time to come back. You don’t want to go through it and risk your health” said Darlow.
