“Irresponsible” – The only person who has not been vaccinated now has Corona
Stand: 12:37 p.m.| Reading time: 3 minutes
Granit Xhaka was supposed to lead Switzerland into the game against Greece as captain. Shortly before, he was tested positive for the corona virus – as the only unvaccinated player in the squad. The association is now in a vaccination discussion.
Et was not the week of the Granit Xhaka anyway. In the 5-0 defeat against Manchester City on Saturday, the Arsenal professional gripped his opponent Joao Cancelo, but saw the red card in the first half. “I’m angry,” said his coach Mikel Arteta after the game. Now Xhaka was also noticed negatively with the Swiss national team.
The midfielder tested positive for the corona virus shortly before the 2-1 friendly win against Greece on Wednesday evening and could not play. The 28-year-old is the only player in the selection squad to have neither been vaccinated nor recovered. Since he is the captain of the team, there is now a debate about his role model function.
“Granite is a role model as a captain, but he is also a person. It’s his decision, he has his own rights ”, the new national coach Murat Yakin defended his protégé. The tabloid “Blick”, however, comments on Xhaka’s decision against vaccination as “negligent”, he would have “acted irresponsibly”.
Association made vaccination recommendations
For the Swiss Football Association, the whirlwind comes at an extremely bad time. Immediately before it became known, the association made a vaccination recommendation for its 1,400 clubs with more than 300,000 members. President Dominque Blanc said: “We want to actively contribute to contain the virus. It is very important to us on the part of the SFV that as few people as possible in our clubs come into contact with the virus and infect themselves and others. “
That didn’t work for Xhaka, he is in quarantine with symptoms. Whether he will be canceled for the upcoming qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar depends on another PCR test this Thursday. The Swiss will play against European champions Italy in Basel on Sunday and in Northern Ireland on Wednesday. The operational professionals can prepare for this in peace; no further quarantine measures have been ordered for them.
St. Petersburg orders two professionals back
The preparation of the Brazilian national team is less calm. She also has corona problems. The Seleção not only have to do without players who are under contract in the English Premier League, but now also send back two professionals who have been nominated from Russia. The two players under contract with Zenit St. Petersburg, Malcolm and Claudinho, do not travel with the delegation to the World Cup qualifier in Chile, after they first undertook the 11,000-kilometer journey across the Atlantic to Brazil.
They felt compelled to return to Russia on Wednesday because their club kept asking them to do so. Brazil is on the so-called Red Corona list of the British government as a travel destination. Before St. Petersburg’s Champions League kick-off at Chelsea on September 14, the two Olympic champions therefore had to be quarantined for ten days.
Malcolm and Claudinho were only called up by Brazil coach Tite on Friday, along with seven other players. The Premier League clubs had previously refused to turn off players who were threatened with quarantine due to the corona regulations in England.
Brazil will face Chile in the South American qualifiers in Santiago de Chile on Thursday (local time), Argentina in São Paulo on September 5th and Peru in Recife on September 9th. The classic against Argentina was postponed due to the corona pandemic in March.
.