Spain players vaccinated ahead of Euro 2020
Spain’s players have received the Covid vaccine ahead of their Euro opener against Sweden on Monday.
The team’s preparation for the tournament was thrown into disarray as they were hit by Covid cases.
Captain Sergio Busquets and Diego Llorente have tested positive and are currently in isolation.
As a result group training was suspended and the country’s U21 squad played one of their warm-up matches, beating Lithuania 4-0.
After several discussions, the vaccines were announced by the Spanish FA who said they would go ahead on Friday.
They said in a statement: “The purpose of this vaccination is to make it easier for Spain to play Euro 2020 with full security guarantees in addition to allowing the national team to compete on equal terms with other participating teams that have already been immunised.
“The vaccination will take place this Friday in the Ciudad del Futbol of Las Rozas by the armed forces and will begin at 10 a.m.
“The national team will be vaccinated by supplying different vaccines depending on the situation of each member.”
It’s understood the vaccines, supplied by army hospital Gomez Ulla in Madrid, given to players do not require a second dose.
And manager Luis Enrique has spoken on the issue saying he would have wanted the players to have it sooner.
He said: “I’d have liked it done when the squad was announced, but that was not possible.
“I would be pretty annoyed not to be able to count on a player because of side effects (to vaccine).”
It isn’t just Spain who have been affected by Covid cases as Scotland and Sweden have had positive cases in their teams.
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