EFL moves to 'red' protocols to deal with spike in Covid cases - as it's revealed 25% of footballers don't intend to get vaccinated

A number of this weekend’s games have already been called off as the Omicron variant continues to cause chaos within football.

As it stands, Blackpool haven’t been affected and Saturday’s home game against Peterborough United is due to go ahead as planned.

The EFL has this afternoon released updated guidance after a host of clubs, including Blackpool, expressed confusion about what it took to call a game off.

From Saturday, a host of fresh measures will be reintroduced as part of a desperate attempt to avoid a circuit breaker.

Daily testing will be brought in along with enhanced protocols at training grounds with social distancing measures required outside physical sessions.

There are also restrictions to the use of indoor facilities, manual therapy and group travel.

The EFL has also reiterated that games should go ahead if clubs have 14 players available from their registered squad list.

Dr Richard Higgins, the EFL’s medical advisor, said: “Further to enhanced medical guidance recently issued in response to a growing number of Covid-19 cases and subsequent fixtures postponements in recent days, the EFL has opted to strengthen its protocols for all clubs to help minimise the health risks to individuals while seeking to mitigate against the threat of further fixture postponements in the weeks ahead.

“Alongside enhanced protocols which includes mandatory testing ahead of matchdays, the EFL continues to strongly encourage players and staff at clubs to get fully vaccinated and obtain a booster jab if eligible to do so.

“We know that getting double jabbed and boosted now will reduce the risk of getting seriously ill or dying from Covid-19, reduce the risk of catching or spreading Covid amongst team-mates and loved ones, while helping protect against variants including Omicron.”

The EFL has revealed 75 per cent of players across the EFL are either fully vaccinated, have had a single jab or intend to be vaccinated.

Double vaccinated players total 59 per cent, 16 per cent are set to get the jab while 25 per cent of players do not intend to get a vaccine.

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