Former England striker Jay Bothroyd, has linked his COVID-19 vaccination to a “frightening” heart problem that required surgery.

Bothroyd, who is now a popular pundit on Sky Sports, finished his career in Japan with Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo, the team he was playing for when the Covid pandemic broke out.

After being vaccinated, he had to have heart surgery.

He has now opened up about how uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine left him unsure where to turn during what he described as a “frightening” ordeal.

Speaking on Piers Morgan’s Football Uncensored podcast, he explained: ‘When the Covid injection was all happening and you had to take it, right, there was lots of talk about it afterwards, about Covid and heart conditions.

‘I went over there; I had my injections. So, obviously, I went back into Japan; now I’m playing football.

‘I played for six months and then, all of a sudden, I developed an irregular heartbeat and I had to have a heart operation, in the last year of my career, and that was frightening.

‘You read all the things in the media; you don’t know what to believe. All you are is scared, because it is a serious situation.

‘It was at a time where everyone was scared, everyone was panicking; wrong information from the very top, people from the very top also breaking laws, breaking rules.

‘To tell people they must get a jab, regardless of their beliefs, their faiths and their own research (was) negligent in itself.’