Shot shy: Premier League bosses ‘struggling to get stars to feature in Covid vaccine publicity campaign’

Premier League stars are refusing to participate in a publicity campaign encouraging fellow players to get their Covid vaccine, according to a report.

The Daily Mail claims to have discovered that vaccination rates among Premier League players have stalled in recent weeks, with numerous clubs holding talks about releasing videos featuring their biggest names stating the importance of being jabbed. 

Yet the project has apparently failed to take off due to “a lack of volunteers.”

Back in July, England manager Gareth Southgate released a video for the NHS which urged young people to get their vaccines, and claimed that he received more abuse for it than England's Euro 2020 penalty shootout loss to Italy in the final at Wembley.

"Of all the things I received abuse for over the summer – of which there’s been several – that’s probably the one I’ve received the most abuse over," Southgate had said.

"I’m probably going to keep out of that argument for the time being.

"When you want to try to make a difference and take the right sort of stance on taking the knee and other things, then you know you are not going to please everybody and there are extreme views on lots of those subjects as well.

"I’m comfortable with that but I’m not going to town on things like the vaccine. I’m not the one who has to open some of that mail and some of those emails, because my poor secretary has dealt with quite a lot of that, so that is the reality," he finished.

In his clip, Southgate said: "If you haven't had your vaccine yet go and get it done, and you guys will get your freedom back."

But thus far there has been no similar message from the English top flight's stars with the backlash the Three Lions' tactician received a possible motive for reluctance.

In comparison to elite competitions in the US such as the NFL, NBA and NHL, the Premier League refuses to disclose how many of its players have been vaccinated.

In the lower tier EFL leagues, however, the figure is put at around 70% across staff and players.

Both the Premier League and the EFL have arranged for briefings to be held for managers and captains with England's deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, where he attempted to debunk numerous vaccine myths.

Despite these efforts, they are still struggling to find players that are prepared to front a publicity campaign.

This week, the EFL plans to step up vaccination promotion by sending information to players in a Q&A format as they currently work with lower league clubs with small medical teams to establish pop-up vaccination centers around training grounds and stadiums.