Steve Cotterill's Shrewsbury vaccination vow to Jurgen Klopp after Liverpool boss reveals Covid concerns

Town head to Anfield for the second time in two years in the new year for an FA Cup third round tie with the Omicron variant of the virus currently ripping its way through the game.

Klopp – like Cotterill who suffered a severe bout of Covid – has been a strong advocate of the vaccination programme and has been speaking in light of the rapidly growing cases.

Three of Liverpool's players, Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Curtis Jones, this week tested positive for the virus despite Klopp revealing all of his players are at least fully jabbed.

The EFL stated this week that 25 per cent of players in its league have declared they do not intend to get vaccinated. A number of Shrewsbury players received jabs upon instruction from Cotterill after Saturday's Montgomery Waters Meadow win over Cheltenham with the boss keen to see his squad are as safe as possible. Town are not known to have had any positive cases of late.

Cotterill revealed his players are working on a traffic light system in regards to their vaccination status and was pleased to have most of his players at the 'green light' stage.

Klopp, meanwhile, who was absent on a mid-season sabbatical with his senior players when Town went to Anfield for a replay in February 2020, admitted playing a lower league side, where players may not be vaccinated, is a concern.

He said: "It's a really tricky situation. I've never had three players on matchday (have to pull out). The most important thing is because the boys are vaccinated they will not feel it really. That's good. We have to wait for them.

"If we should stop the league, I have no real answer for it. If you stop it for two weeks and we come back, I really don't know what to do. I saw the Everton line-up on Thursday, I don't know half of the players.

"We have three players out because of Covid. If we have another three or four out, we play Leicester in midweek (in the League Cup). In League One and Two, the players are not really vaccinated. Then we play on the 26th and the 28th and you have 13 players available, that's not possible."

When asked about Klopp's concerns, Shrewsbury boss Cotterill replied: "I'll show him our green lights, he might not worry so much then."

German Klopp was asked specifically if he was worried about the Cup tie going ahead and facing sides with the possibility of a lower vaccination rate.

League One Shrews head to the Reds on Sunday, January 9 for a 2pm kick-off where, restrictions permitting, they are expected to be backed by a giant following on Merseyside.

He responded: "We had that last year already, we had away games. I don’t know 100 per cent but I don’t think a lot of things changed since then.

"We go there to an FA Cup away game (last season), change in really small dressing rooms, all these kinds of things, that was the situation last year. It’s just not 100 per cent thought through.

"Now we play at home so that’s fine, we play outside so that’s fine as well, it’s just all these different things.

"We have constantly to think about other things besides football and that’s obviously pretty special because we have enough football already to think about.

"I’m not concerned we could not play them but we had that situation, we play a Football League team at home but others play away and I’m not sure how it’s sorted.

"If we sort the problem for Liverpool, the problem is not sorted because it’s still out there. We have to sort the general problem and that’s why I mentioned it’s not only (about) stopping the league or continuing like usual, there are things in between that we have to sort."