The Trinidad and Tobago squad assembled in London, Gatwick on Friday ahead of their scheduled arrival in Bucharest on Saturday evening for Tuesday’s friendly international against Romania at the National Arena.
Co-head coaches Jamaal Shabazz and Hutson Charles will oversee a training session at the Crawley training ground at Haven Centre Sportsfield on Saturday morning with several of the players already in camp. English-based agent Faizal Khan was able to assist in securing the training facility for the visiting “Soca Warriors” who have not been in the United Kingdom for a training camp since the build up for the 2006 World Cup when Leo Beenhakker led the team at Camden Park in Manchester.
Middlesbrough defender Justin Hoyte joined the squad for the first time on Friday and was joined by Notts County midfielder Andre Boucaud, Port Vale midfielder Christopher Birchall as well as Orlando City midfielder Kevin Molino and Kazakhstan-based defender Radanhfah Abu Bakr. Finnish-based players Shahdon Winchester and Ataullah Guerra will arrive in London on Saturday
T&T will have to do without the services of Thailand-based defender Seon Power who was ruled out through injury as well as Kazakhstan-based defender Robert Primus who informed team manager William Wallace on Thursday that he would be unavailable as his FC Aktobe club is sending him to Russia for a medical appointment.
Already missing is Philadelphia Union midfielder Keon Daniel and midfielder Hughtun Hector who was ruled out with injury last week.
Former Columbus Crew defender Julius James, now based with Carolina Railhawks will arrive on Monday to complete the 18-man squad for the two games. The rest of the players who arrived from Port of Spain include Cornell Glen, Joevin Jones, Densill Theobald, Jan-Michael Williams, Marvin Phillips, Kevon Carter, Daneil Cyrus, Darryl Roberts, Devorn Jorsling and Jamal Gay.
Shabazz is anticipating the next couple days leading up to the Romania friendly.
“It’s a good little period for us because we have the chance to spend some time with both the players from home and outside of Trinidad and Tobago in preparation for these two games,” Shabazz told TTFF Media.
“It’s unfortunate that we will have to do without a few of the players who were originally in the squad but these things happen. At the same time we have a squad of players with us at the moment that possess a lot of experience and ability. These matches against Romania and Estonia will also give us the opportunity to measure ourselves at this stage of the preparation and see where we have to go in order to be ready for the Gold Cup next month,” Shabazz said.
The current two-match training camp was supported by the Ministry of Sports.