The soap opera on the vaccination of the Spanish team closed last night as intended by the Spanish Football Federation after an intense day of meetings and disagreements between the Ministry of Health and the body chaired by José Luis Rubiales. The La Roja footballers will be vaccinated ‘on demand’ by Army health professionals starting at ten in the morning this Friday. The process will be as follows: those who have passed the COVID for at least two months will receive a dose of Pfizer. The rest will be inoculated with Janssen.
The differences in contacts began in the morning. When everything seemed ready for the Army to go to the Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas on Friday to administer the Pfizer preparation to the members of the national team, the process was lurching due to the federal demand that they be inoculated with the Janssen single-dose to those who have not passed the coronavirus, despite the fact that this prophylaxis is not recommended for people under 40 years of age due to very rare cases of thrombi registered among the young population.
Adverse reactions
Rubiales’ team considered that the decision to supply the serums to the members of the group that will debut in the Eurocup on Monday against Sweden was late and feared possible adverse reactions that would deprive Luis Enrique of a footballer in the middle of the tournament, which would weigh down the options of a selection whose work plan was dynamited with the positive of Sergio Busquets last Sunday, which forced to establish individualized work routines, limited the tactical work and motivated the call of six new players, who would later be added eleven others from the U21 team, to create parallel bubbles in anticipation of new setbacks.
With the uncertainty and restlessness marking the day-to-day life of a block that should have focused solely on preparing for the European Championship but now holds its breath for the results of the PCR tests you undergo each day, the Federation stepped on the brake because it did not see logical dispensing the two doses of Pfizer provided by Health to the footballers once they were at work, that is, with the ball already rolling. The punctures require a space of three weeks, so even in the event that the first one occurred this Friday, the second inoculation would arrive at the beginning of July, exactly the week in which the quarterfinals are disputed.
What nobody wanted was that the preparation of any brand limits the performance of the players within a few hours of its premiere at the Eurocup, and that is why the Federation stopped the initiative. The effects of the prophylactic are not immediate and the total protection would come with the Eurocup already finished if Pfizer were chosen, so in the selection it was understood that this measure, more cosmetic than anything else at this point, would hardly have an impact on the health of those summoned and could even be counterproductive for their sports performance.
Finally, both parties reached a satisfactory agreement: Pfizer for those who have overcome the disease eight weeks ago and Janssen for the other members of the expedition.
Coach upset
In his first telematic appearance since Busquets was positive, Luis Enrique expressed his discomfort at the delay in vaccinations: “We would have liked it to have been done at the right time, which was after the official list,” declared the coach at a press conference in which he revealed that Rubiales informed him two months ago that he was working on the vaccination of La Roja. “That could not be achieved then,” lamented the Asturian coach, who stressed that “it would annoy him a lot if there were adverse reactions.”
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