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Novak Djokovic broke his silence after being deported from Australia, revealing that he will not participate in future Grand Slams if that means he has to be vaccinated for Covid.
The 34-year-old top Serbian tennis player was in the spotlight a few days ago after his deportation from Australia and his exclusion at the Australian Open.
In an interview with the BBC, Novak Djokovic spoke for the first time since his exclusion and stressed that he would choose not to play in future tournaments if he has to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Novak Djokovic has said he would rather miss out on future tennis trophies than be forced to get a Covid vaccine.
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— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) February 15, 2022
Djokovic said he had “always been a great student of wellness, wellbeing, health, nutrition,” and that his decision had been partly influenced by the positive impact that factors such as changing his diet and his sleeping patterns, had had on his abilities as an athlete.
He said he was “keeping [his] mind open” about the possibility of being vaccinated in the future, “because we are all trying to find collectively, a best possible solution to end Covid”.
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“I was never against vaccination. I understand that globally, everyone is trying to put a big effort into handling this virus and seeing, hopefully, an end soon to this virus.”
“I understand that there is a lot of criticism, and I understand that people come out with different theories on how lucky I was or how convenient it is,” he acknowledged.
“But no-one is lucky and convenient of getting Covid. Millions of people have and are still struggling with Covid around the world. So I take this very seriously, I really don’t like someone thinking I’ve misused something or in my own favour, in order to, you know, get a positive PCR test and eventually go to Australia”.
