'It's hard to convince my team-mates to get vaccinated': Newcastle's Karl Darlow says 'four or five' players at the club are STILL refusing the Covid jab, despite seeing him hospitalised on a drip with the virus

• Karl Darlow had a serious bout of Covid-19 just four days before his first vaccine 
• The goalkeeper spent three days on a hospital drip leaving him 'severely worried'
• The 30-year-old has only just returned to full fitness after 'awful fatigue'
• Four or five Newcastle players are yet to be immunised, according to Darlow
• Premier League chiefs have made a video encouraging players to be jabbed 

Newcastle United's Karl Darlow has urged his fellow players to go and get vaccinated after his recovery from Covid-19.

The goalkeeper had a serious bout of coronavirus in July, just four days before he was due to have his first vaccine, and spent three days on a hospital drip, leaving him 'severely worried'. 

Darlow's ordeal has managed to convince a couple of his team-mates to get vaccinated after he only just returned to full fitness following 'awful fatigue' and a five-kilos weight loss.

But the 30-year-old revealed that 'four or five' Newcastle players are yet to be immunised 'for hopefully genuine reasons'. 

Speaking on the BBC's The Sports Desk podcast, Darlow described his ordeal: 'I ended up driving myself into hospital about 11 or 12 o'clock at night, just so I could get hydrated, because I wasn't able to swallow with my glands so swollen.

'I was severely worried. When it was at its worst… I didn't want it to affect my breathing. 

'I knew that if I could get in and get on a drip and get the food and water into myself, I'd be OK but there's always a thing, in the back of your mind, that if it does get into your breathing, then you are in serious trouble.

'Obviously your family's panicking.

'I had nearly every single symptom, I think. The hot and cold, diarrhoea, everything, it wasn't nice. 

'Weight wise, I wasn't able to eat or drink for three or four days, so I ended up losing about five kilos. 

'I don't think Lucy, my partner, could believe just how gaunt I was in the face and how much weight I had lost.'

Darlow said he regrets not scheduling his vaccine earlier and revealed that his experience has encouraged his team-mates at St James' Park to get the jab.  

'I think seeing how I was probably convinced them to go and get it done,' he said.

'So it's tough, because everyone who isn't having it has their own reason, and sometimes it's hard to convince or go into deep conversation with your team-mates about getting vaccinated if they have a very good reason, and you can't force it upon people.

'We've still got four or five lads who haven't had it, hopefully for genuine reasons. I don't want to force the issue and I don't think other people should be forcing the issue on other people who have genuine health issues.'

Darlow's revelations follow Premier League chiefs' desperate attempts to urge footballers to ignore the myths around the Covid vaccine by teaming up with the government.

Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer, recorded footage last week in which he answered a series of questions put to him by a Premier League representative.

It is due to be shared among players imminently to avoid more of the Covid-enforced setbacks threatening to undermine the new season. 

The pressure on players to get the jab is due to increase this week when the Government meets to discuss plans to make vaccine passports mandatory for anyone who attends an event attracting a crowd of more than 20,000 people. 

The initiative follows reports that almost a third of players in the English Football League were not immunised and had no plans to get jabbed.

The Telegraph reported that the data collected by the EFL found that around only 70 per cent of EFL players at its 72 clubs had received at least one dose of vaccine or were intending to get one.

Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka was the first Premier League player to be revealed as having declined the vaccination before testing positive for coronavirus last week.