Carlisle United boss on players' Covid vaccinations and how club are trying to keep Omicron at bay

But the Blues manager says he would never try to “influence” a player’s decision on whether or not to get the jab.

Millen gave new details about the club’s Covid protocols at his weekly press conference yesterday amid rising cases of the virus across the country.

He said United are “clamping down” as much as they can on anything that could put the club at risk of the virus.

Some games in the English leagues have been suspended in recent days with fears that further action could be hit.

Asked about vaccinations among his own players, Millen said: “The EFL have sent us a chart with a risk assessment – it shows different things depending on whether you’ve been vaccinated once, twice or had a booster, and your age and other things.

“I can’t and I wouldn’t force anybody to have or not have vaccines, and I won’t ask them why.

“We’ve got a mixture in the squad but without knowing the exact numbers I would say the majority have had at least one jab.

“That’s their choice and I can’t influence that. All I can do is try to make them understand what we’re doing to keep everyone at the club safe.

“We’ve had a couple of discussions on it and I think they have to take their own responsibility on it as well.”

Millen spoke about the measures the club are taking – and which have been in place from an early stage in the pandemic – as he spoke of his hope that United could continue to keep the virus at bay.

Millen says players are taking regular Covid tests (photo: Richard Parkes)

“I wasn’t here last year, but it decimated the season,” he said. “The club know first-hand what impact it can have, so there are a lot of things in place before I came in.

“This new variant has set the alarm bells off again and we’ve reacted to that.

“I’ve spoken to the medical department, spoken to the club, the EFL sent us emails along the lines of recommendations, so we’ve looked at that.

“I think we’ve really clamped down. I’ve backed our medical department on how much testing we’re going to do, and the players will be testing themselves at home before they come in. Any signs of any symptoms and they will stay at home.

“The club have had protocols in place since it all first started with red zones, travel arrangements, who is sharing with who and who is vaccinated and who isn’t. All of that has been in place for a while, before I obviously came here.

“From my point of view, because of the recommendations from the government we’ve got stricter on certain things. We’re trying to keep our bubble a lot closer and we’ve started doing more regular testing.

“Everyone has to do a questionnaire every morning to check for any symptoms, and we’re testing two or three times a week. We’re trying to do everything we can to try and keep Covid out of the building.

“We’ve got a little room set up now, just by the Christmas tree in the hall [at Brunton Park], where we’ve got a little testing room. They will be testing before they come into the building.

Millen says United are doing all they can to keep Covid out of Brunton Park (photo: Richard Parkes)

“The academy have separated themselves away from us, so they’ve been brilliant as well in supporting us.

“[It means] the [first team] players unfortunately have to clean their own boots, that didn’t please some of them…”

Millen added: “We really are trying to think of everything we can – drinking out of their own bottles, cleaning them…there are so many things you try and do.

“I think we’ve covered every base as much as we can at the club. It’s just an awareness away from the club that you have to keep reminding them about.

“I can only really look after them while they’re in the building; it’s what they do when they aren’t here that they need to be aware of. That’s why we’re testing them as much as possible when they’re in for training.”

Millen also commented on United’s decision to reduce Brunton Park’s capacity to 9,999, in order to go below the minimum threshold where fans’ Covid status would need to be checked before entering the ground under government Plan B measures.

The decision has been praised by some in the anti-lockdown movement, while others have said the move was common-sense given United’s average crowds and the spacious size of Brunton Park.

“It would be nice to have 10,000 people here!” Millen said. “We aren’t getting anywhere near those crowds at the moment and I think the rules are about expected attendances.

“If we were getting bigger crowds then the club would look at it because the safety of fans is paramount. I don’t think it’s a big issue for us at the moment because we’re not getting those numbers in.”