Kurniawan after completing his second dose of vaccinations.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Football Club (Sabah FC) players and team officials completed their Covid-19 vaccinations on Wednesday.
Altogether 39 of them received the second dose of the Pfizer-BionNtech vaccine at the vaccination centre at Pacific Sutera Hotel. They have taken the first dose on June 2.
Head coach Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto described the vaccinations were important to all the teams involved in the Super League to ensure their safety and health are guaranteed.
Apart from that, he also said it will contribute to smooth running of the 2021 Malaysian League campaign.
“The vaccinations are important to create herd immunity to curb the spread as well as to protect the public from the coronavirus.
“This will ensure the Malaysian League challenge can be held smoothly with the presence of the supporters inside the stadium,” he said in a statement to the press on Wednesday.
The Indonesian trainer also believed that the participating teams would feel much safer to return to the field after getting their vaccinations since players from other teams too had completed their inoculation.
Meanwhile, Kurniawan said the Rhinos were undergoing camp-based training at the Sabah Football Association (Safa) training ground in Likas since June 7.
He said they were fully utilising the extra days to further prepare the team to be ready for the resumption of the league, which has been pushed back to July 24.
“There are new players in the team including Josip Ivancic who did play against Kedah Darul Aman FC before the initial two-months breaks started.
“Apart from that we have also signed Nazirul Naim on loan during the second tranfer window in May and the delay start of the league will give them adequate time to adapt to the team,” he said.
Sabah FC have completed 13 league matches and registered four wins, four draws and five losses.
The Rhinos are currently seventh on 16 points in the 12-team league, which Johor Darul Ta’zim lead on 30 points.
The state senior side will resume their league matches against PJ City FC at the MBPJ Stadium on July 24.