DAVE Artell has urged all his Crewe's players to get jabbed at a time when some managers have highlighted concerns footballers are unsure about having Covid vaccinations.

While the Alex boss says his players have the right to choose whether they want to be vaccinated or not, he believes they need to consider the benefits to the wider community as well as their themselves.

The club's doctor Austin Docherty keeps a record of squad vaccinations and Artell says information has been provided to encourage every player to get double-vaccinated.

The government has talked about only fully-vaccinated fans being allowed to attend Premier League games from October, but any rule could apply in the lower divisions.

It has been encouraging younger people to get vaccinated amid fears of another wave of the virus.

There have been concerns that players at some Premier League and EFL clubs have refused to take the vaccine. Newcastle United boss Steve Bruce revealed last week "a lot" of his players were unvaccinated against Covid, despite goalkeeper Karl Darlow spending time in hospital with the illness.

Artell said: "It's their right [not to be vaccinated], but that's where their [the players] rights stop. If that means they can't play football because they don't want to have a vaccine then they don't play football.

"That's not my decision obviously, that's Boris' or somebody's and I don't think it will get to that point. But if people can't get onto a plane or into a nightclub and then people say 'that's infringing my human rights'...Well no, your human rights stopped when you refused the vaccine.

"It's about everyone else's health, because vaccines work."

While Crewe have kept to a strict Covid-secure regime around their Reaseheath training base, the club has had cases of Covid among its squad and staff.

Last October a number of players tested positive forcing the cancellation of a game at Oxford United.

The Alex boss hopes that his players understand he is passing on a public health message to them for their own good and added: "We've tried to coerce them and give them the information, not propaganda.

"It's not doctored to our own agenda, this is readily-available government information and we've said to them this is what vaccines do for you and why you should have them.

"If they don't do it then fine there's nothing we can do.

"Our doctor has a record of who has had it. For example Ben Knight missed training [on Thursday] because he had his second jab and he was feeling poorly; he stayed off just to make sure he was all right.

"But we've logged who's done what and who's not done what in terms of vaccines and that's just dutiful from our point of view."

• Alex defender Billy Sass-Davies - a star of Crewe's rearguard action at Leeds in the midweek Carabao Cup tie (0-3) - has been included in Paul Bodin's Welsh under-21 party for a Euro 2023 qualifier trip to Sofia to play Bulgaria on September 7.

Sass-Davies' call-up would have seen him miss Crewe's September 4 home clash with Morecambe, but the game has been cancelled anyway because three of the Lancashire club's players have received international call-ups.

There is no new date for the fixture at the Mornflake Stadium as yet.