Former Watford striker, Troy Deeney, has revealed that he almost died of Covid-19 in 2020. Despite that, the 33-year-old football star has insisted that no footballer should be forced to receive vaccines for the virus.
Since the vaccines for the virus have been approved across the world, most football stars have refused to accept the vaccines due to conspiracy theories against them.
Many think that those who take the vaccine often end up with one medical complication or the other. While others attach supernatural connotations to the vaccines.
Since footballers are seen as role models, there has been pressure on them to be vaccinated and talk about it to encourage other masses who are skeptical about it to receive the vaccine.
Though Troy Deeney revealed how he spent four days in hospital on a ventilator due to the virus and almost lost his life in the process, he insisted that taking the vaccine should remain a choice for those who decide to take it.
Despite advocating that footballers should not be coerced into taking the vaccine, Deeney who now plays for Championship side Birmingham confirmed that he has been double jabbed.
According to the former Watford talisman, he now feels safer since he took the vaccine which he said should not be forced on others.
Also, the 33-year-old English footballer who is also a pundit and columnist of a UK publication, The Sun, noted in his article that his teammate at Birmingham, Neil Etheridge almost died of the virus.
Yet, that is not enough to force footballers to take the vaccine even if their decision would encourage others not to take it to detriment of their safety and the safety of others.
Troy Deeney wrote on The Sun, “I’m double-jabbed and I think it’s the right thing to do. But I also think we should respect the personal choice.
“At Birmingham, we had a group of players, maybe around 20, who were jabbed up or had jabs booked, and a smaller group, say about five, who did not want to be vaccinated.
“When we debated it, we got to the point where I said, ‘Are we saying that we don’t want anything to do with these players who aren’t vaccinated? That we didn’t want to go near them? We want to ostracise them from the group?’
“And we unanimously agreed this wasn’t the case, that those who didn’t want to be jabbed were entitled to their own choices.
“This issue of whether or not players are vaccinated has been thrown into a sharper focus now that a series of matches in the Premier League and EFL have been postponed in the last week due to rising numbers of Covid cases.
“There is talk the NFL are going to make vaccines mandatory for all players. I don’t think I agree with that, even though it would make the situation clearer.
“I would welcome it if there was more transparency over the number of players who are Covid-positive before a fixture is called off. The rules seem very unclear and open to accusations of favoritism as it stands.
“I’ve heard people arguing that with Covid so rife in football, we should have a ‘circuit-breaker’ and call all games off, maybe until the middle of January.
“That would only make sense if we could guarantee that everything would be clear after such a break — and that isn’t the case.”
Troy Deeney joined Birmingham on August 30, 2021, from Watford on a free transfer. His contract with the Championship side will expire on June 30, 2023.
So far this season, he has scored four goals and provided three assists in 18 games in all competitions. His transfer market value is €1.5 million.
Sensational, Troy Deeney. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/fP2YxblEOp
— Birmingham City FC (@BCFC) December 13, 2021
