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A positive Covid-19 test for captain Sergio Busquets threw their preparations into crisis but Spain feel ready to be contenders
The army rolled into Las Rozas at 0945 hours on Friday. A dozen personnel, including a colonel, a captain, a lieutenant, two sergeant majors and three corporals, arrived at Spain HQ early on a mission to vaccinate the national team against Covid-19, three days before their opening game at Euro 2020. In total, 43 injections were administered by staff from the Gómez Ulla military hospital, the few who already had the first Pfizer jab getting their second, while the rest got the single-dose Janssen. And then the players went back to their rooms, alone.
Spain’s manager, Luis Enrique, insisted that the federation had asked more than a month ago for their players to be vaccinated, a formal written request landing at the ministry of health last week. “I would have liked it to have been done when it should have been done, after naming the squad,” he added. Now it had actually happened, the government calling the army in – because, in Jordi Alba’s words, they had “seen the wolf’s ears”, the danger right before them. Continue reading...