Tennis supremo Novak Djokovic sparked outrage when he announced that he had been exempted from vaccination rules to compete for, and defend, his Australian Open title.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the nine-time Open champion would be required to present evidence of a medical exemption, or be sent on the “next plane home”.
Estimated figures from last autumn’s US Open suggest only two-thirds of players have had the jab, but it is not just tennis where uptake has been surprisingly low. An estimated sixth of all English Premier League football stars are supposedly unvaccinated.
Djokovic joins a surprisingly long list of athletes who have decided against revealing whether they have received the jab or not.
Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich said he wants to find out whether the current doses cause any side effects having seen some players collapse during games after being inoculated. Meanwhile, the PGA’s Bryson DeChambeau claimed he was a “young individual that will continue to work on my health”.
The situation may be more complicated. “Young sports people lead a very closeted life,” claimed Irish Times columnist Ciarán Murphy recently on RTÉ Radio 1. “It spreads in the dressing room in a way that it’s harder for us to understand.”
Murphy, please explain.
