Around a quarter of footballers playing in the EFL have not been vaccinated against coronavirus.

Many of Gillingham’s players have not been jabbed either and chairman Paul Scally plans to bring up the subject with manager Steve Evans.

The Gills have had their weekend home game against Crewe Alexandra called off because of Covid cases within the camp.

The EFL announced this week that 25% of players in the three divisions below the Premier League “do not intend to get a vaccine.” This was from data collected in November.

Mr Scally said he was quite surprised at the amount of their own players who had not been vaccinated, when commenting on BBC Radio 5 Live on Thursday afternoon, shortly after their game had been called off. The club chairman ordered Priestfield Stadium to be closed after several office staff also tested positive.

Players are tested every morning before training, by way of an LFT, in a bid to stop any outbreaks.

Vaccines are available for all adults and Mr Scally added that he was “shocked” after finding out last Saturday so few of his own players had not been vaccinated, saying it didn’t make any logical sense.

Rhys Bennett was recently missing because he had to isolate over Covid and this weekend’s EFL fixture list has seen many games fall victim to the virus, as a record number of positive cases have been reported in the UK.

The EFL said in a statement that they are encouraging all eligible players and staff to get fully vaccinated and a booster jab to help protect colleagues and minimise the risk of fixtures being postponed.

They are in support of the government’s ‘Get Boosted Now’ campaign over the coming weeks. Those without any jab so far are many months away from being fully vaccinated.

Gillingham told the EFL on Thursday that they would be unable to fulfil the weekend fixture against Crewe. The club had already been hit by injuries before the Covid outbreak.

The EFL have clarified the number of players required to complete a league fixture.

They say that clubs will be expected to play where it has 14 players including a goalkeeper available from the club’s registred squad list, under-21 players not on the squad list but have played one league match, or any other contracted player not on the squad list but otherwise would have been eligible to play.