Signing Wout Weghorst on transfer deadline day for around €15m, Burnley got the man they wanted to replace Chris Wood, who had been sold to Newcastle United.
The towering Dutchman will provide the physicality needed to bother Premier League defences, but it appears that his move to Turf Moor was one done by default.
This comes from Bild in Germany, who explain it’s the player’s ‘vaccination status’ that sent him to England, describing the move as an ‘emergency exit’ for the player.
In fact, according to the German outlet, ‘there were several clubs from England, Italy and Spain interested in a Weghorst commitment’, but, in the end, ‘everyone waved it off because Weghorst was not vaccinated’.
Furthermore, not only was Burnley the ‘emergency exit’ for the player, ‘but also for VfL Wolfsburg’, because ‘his recovered status’ from Coronavirus (he contracted it in October) ‘expired two weeks ago’ and his ‘continued employment would have presented VfL Wolfsburg with logistical and organisational problems, especially around match days’.
They use home games as an example, explaining he ‘would not longer have been allowed to go to the team hotel’.
