Steve Cotterill: Shrewsbury players fully vaccinated following sensational Cheltenham victory
Steve Cotterill has revealed his Shrewsbury Town players are to receive their second and booster jabs imminently as the boss looks to ensure his squad are fully vaccinated.
The Town chief revealed after a memorable 3-1 home win over Cheltenham with 10 men that some members of his squad were being vaccinated while the post-match press duties took place.
The push comes with the rise of the Omicron variant as Cotterill calls on his players to be fully immune from the virus, which has ripped through the football calendar this weekend as cases rise again.
Cotterill also gave a passionate plea for fans and general public to get jabbed and spoke about his own experiences with Covid, which left him in intense care and bed bound for 69 days as he fought against a severe bout earlier this year.
The Town boss insisted 'conspiracy theorist' talk around being vaccinated is 'nonsense' and called upon his Shrewsbury players to be safe.
Cotterill said: "As we talk our lads are having either second injections or boosters now.
"We then have done really, really well. I'm really proud of the lads with what they've done as regards that, from young to old. They're in there now (having a jab).
"The booster, it might be the roughest one, that's what happened to me, I never felt first two injections, the booster hit me for six, we had a weekend off the other week, I thought it'd be great, I had my booster on the Friday and never got up until Monday, I felt really poorly and thought 'oh my God, have I got this again?' I tested morning and night and I hadn't, but felt really rough.
"We're going to lock the boys down now for three or four days, keep them away and they'll have their injections. We'll have a longer build-up to training over Christmas, pre-Christmas, Christmas Day then Boxing Day (at Fleetwood).
"It's a longer build-up but we'll shut them down tonight for three or four days."
It is unconfirmed how many of the Shrewsbury squad have had their jabs, but Cotterill is looking to ensure all of them are protected and the club becomes as secure as possible.
Shrewsbury Town Football Club held a vaccination centre during Saturday's match against Cheltenham where any member of the public could receive a dose from morning until evening.
Daniel Udoh, Luke Leahy and Elliott Bennett were pictured receiving their jab after the match.
Cotterill, when asked about the worrying rise of cases due to the new variant, adde: "Football and all of that pales into insignificance when we're talking about this.
"If you end up catching Covid through whatever reason, it doesn't matter if you love your football, whether you work in football, if you end up dying - and there's been 100,000s who have - then there's no football anyway.
"Whatever's safe shouldn't be criticised. Our life now changes in the dressing room, for instance.
"We thought it was changing back, but it changes again now. I suppose it's easy for me to administer at our club after having it to the extremities that I had it.
"Therefore I'm with whatever scientifically is the best for the UK as a whole, for everybody.
"For those potentially thinking there's no Covid out there, there is. So anybody who comes up with a conspiracy theory or anything like that, they're talking absolute nonsense, you've got to be safe.
"Even if you don't want the jab for yourself, have it for your family, your work-mates, your team-mates, your acquaintances, it's the only way that we'll try to get out of this, which is why everybody is ramping up the booster."
Town delighted fans at Montgomery Waters Meadow with the 3-1 home win against the Robins in League One, in which fans' favourite Udoh fired a brace before David Davis added a rare goal with the third, after Shrewsbury had played 50 minutes with 10 men thanks to a red card to youngster Tom Bloxham.
