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Berlin, Oct 5 (AFP): Germany forward Thomas Mueller admits finding it hard to know how to interact with fans during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
“I can only say for myself that I am still very cautious about direct contact. I don’t know exactly how I should behave,” Mueller admitted during a press conference on Tuesday, three days before Germany’s World Cup qualifier against Romania in Hamburg.<\/p>\n
“I am very reluctant to give autographs. It is difficult for everyone to find a clear line,” added the 32-year-old, who is set to make his 107th international appearance on Friday.<\/p>\n
Mueller caught COVID-19 in February while playing for Bayern Munich at the Club World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n
He flew back to Germany and quarantined in the cellar of his home near Munich to avoid infecting his wife.<\/p>\n
Germany are on course to qualify for next year’s World Cup as they hold a four-point lead at the top of their group after last month’s wins over Liechtenstein, Armenia and Iceland.<\/p>\n
They host Romania in Hamburg on Friday, then face North Macedonia away next Monday in Skopje before the last two qualifiers in November against Liechtenstein and Armenia.<\/p>\n
The German team gathered in a Hamburg hotel on Sunday, but most of stars ignored the small crowd waiting for autographs.<\/p>\n
Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger was the only Germany player who signed autographs and posed for pictures while observing social distancing.<\/p>\n
Moenchengladbach midfielder Jonas Hofmann explained why the majority of the squad were reluctant to meet fans with Germany still in the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
“The (national) restrictions are being eased, but it shouldn’t be overlooked that vaccinated people can still get infected,” said Hofmann.<\/p>\n
“Both at our clubs and here (with the national team) there are (hygiene) rules for us to follow.<\/p>\n
“Every fan wants autographs and selfies, but the regulations are still there.”<\/p>\n
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Berlin, Oct 5 (AFP): Germany forward Thomas Mueller admits finding it hard to know how to interact with fans during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I can only say for myself that I am still very cautious about direct contact. I don’t know exactly how I should behave,” Mueller admitted during a press conference on Tuesday, three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-173506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}