Thirty members of the Trinidad and Tobago National Men’s Under 17 team underwent medical screenings last Tuesday at the Ato Boldon Stadium as they continue their build up to the CONCACAF Under 17 Championship and Final round of World Cup qualifiers in Honduras next month.
The Healthnet/MyCard Sport medical team conducted a doctor’s fitness examination, blood pressure, body mass index, vision screening, fasting blood glucose, cholesterol, blood and iron count, ECG heart test and Spirometry lung capacity testing. All tests were conducted on-site using Healthnet’s Medical Mobile unit at the Couva venue.
This is all part of the relationship between Healthnet and the TTFA which started last August when Healthnet agreed to a deal worth over $3 million in the next four years to cover medical screening for all national teams.
Every player and member of staff passed the medical tests and were presented with their Healthnet/TTFA My Cards which will afford them benefits at several health shops, restaurants and other merchants in T&T.
T&T’s opening game in Honduras is against Guatemala at the Francisco Morazan Stadium, San Pedro Sula on February 27.
T&T, which qualified as the best third placed team from the Caribbean, will also face host Honduras, Jamaica, USA and Cuba, in Group A. Group B includes Canada, Haiti, Panama, Mexico, St Lucia and Costa Rica.
T&T head coach Shawn Cooper said he expects to finalize his team for the tournament next week and is already planning his approach for the opening match against the Guatemalans.
“This will be the third time we are playing Guatemala in a CONCACAF Final at this level. We won the last time but they defeated us 3-0 in 2009. We know we have what it takes to get the win over them,” Cooper told TTFA Media.
“We are leaving no stone unturned. We know the team that went to Haiti was not our best team and one that would be able to compete at the CONCACAF.
As such, we have made some adjustments and we’ve also looked at a couple new players from North America that will bring a lot of value to the current squad and what you will see now is a more balanced and technically better team than the one that played in the previous round in Haiti,” Cooper concluded.