Ian Evatt says that Bolton Wanderers will certainly take into account if a player is not vaccinated against Covid-19 as part of their decision making with signings in the January transfer window.
Wanderers are poised to be active in the upcoming transfer window as they aim to add reinforcements to their squad for the second half of the League One campaign.
Their two most recent games - last weekend's clash against Wycombe Wanderers and the Boxing Day encounter versus Morecambe - have both been called off in light of Covid-19.
READ MORE: State of play of Covid vaccination among the Bolton Wanderers squad as Ian Evatt send message
There has been an outbreak of the virus in the Wanderers camp involving 18 positive cases.
A total of 14 players and four football staff members, including Evatt, have tested positive for the illness.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has been very vocal in urging people to get vaccinated and have booster jabs against Covid-19, and it is a stance that Evatt is fully behind.
Ahead of the January transfer window, Evatt said that players' vaccination status will 'play a part' when they are assessing targets to sign next month.
He told the Manchester Evening News: “I think it’s definitely got to play a part. One hundred per cent. I completely agreed with Jurgen (Klopp) when he was saying that. When we are making signings in January, we’re making them to have a significant impact and an immediate impact.
"I think last January was a great example of that for us - the way we went into the window, we got people who we wanted and we had a significant improvement in the team from virtually day one and ended up being promoted.
"It’s no good to me if we’re hitting the ground running and we’ve committed money for a player, and then just as we’re hitting out stride he has to miss 10 days or two weeks with Covid, or in a more serious issue he becomes ill with Covid and has long Covid and the suffering off the back of that, and we don’t have him available for a significant period of time.
"It’s something that we definitely have to look at as a medical department – there’s no doubt about that."
Evatt added: “It’s (Covid) certainly not helped on a financial front with the massive loss of revenue over December and Christmas time. That would have been huge for us.
"That’s where we can all really play a part – we are going to have those fixtures again. If we can make sure that we get a similar crowd to Boxing Day, and I don’t know how achievable that is. But that’s how our fans can support our club – by coming to watch, by getting tickets, by buying iFollow passes. It all makes a big difference.
"We’ve had a substantial loss of revenue over this period and it’s going to hurt, so the more we can all help and chip in the better really.”
