Thursday, September 02, 2021
Positive test after vaccination call
“Nati” captain defies his own association
The Swiss Football Association calls on its members to get vaccinated. The campaign is badly damaged only hours after its start – by the captain of the national team personally. The national coach has to explain himself.
After the Corona case of national team captain Granit Xhaka, Swiss football is threatened with a vaccination discussion. Immediately after the national association SFV gave a vaccination recommendation for its 1,400 clubs with more than 300,000 members on Wednesday, the midfielder of Arsenal FC tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 virus and was absent from the 2-1 test match win that evening the Swiss in Basel against Greece. Xhaka is the only player in the selection squad to have neither been vaccinated nor recovered.
“We give a vaccination recommendation. Granit is a role model as a captain, but he is also a person. It is his decision, he has his own rights,” said the new national coach and former Bundesliga professional Murat Yakin. “Xhaka was diagnosed with symptoms on the morning of the game, whereupon he was immediately isolated in his room,” the SFV said in the evening.
A spokesman for the association had already described the association’s view of the case halfway through the game: “Granit Xhaka was not vaccinated. He is a player who is not vaccinated. We left it up to each player, it’s a personal decision every player – just like every other person in Switzerland. We have issued the recommendation that everyone vaccinate. But he has made a personal decision. And that is also his right not to be vaccinated. ”
“High vaccination rate in the team”
Have you tried to protect Xhaka as an unvaccinated player more than others? “We have all always tried to adhere to Fifa’s return-to-play protocol. We are still keeping our distance, have masks in the meetings, have tried to go into these international matches as safely as possible,” said SFV communications director Adrian Arnold. “Ultimately, you also have to say: Thanks to the high vaccination rate in the team and because so many players have these antibodies, because they have been vaccinated or recovered, we now have no other people from the team who have to be quarantined or in isolation that the effects are really on a person. “
A rapid test in the 28-year-old was initially negative, “the PCR test, which was then carried out to be on the safe side, revealed a positive result in the evening,” it said. Xhaka, who plays for Arsenal in England, had been out of touch with his team-mates all day.
Since all Swiss national players are “either vaccinated or recovered”, the canton doctor of the canton of Baselland ordered no further measures. Today, Thursday, another PCR test should reveal whether Xhaka was actually infected. In this case, the 28-year-old would be unable to play the upcoming qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The Swiss will play against European champions Italy in Basel on Sunday and in Northern Ireland on Wednesday.
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