KERON “Ball Pest” Cummings, the Trinidad and Tobago and North East Stars FC midfielder, is set to make his comeback from a career-threatening right leg injury as early as Sunday, when his club faces Central FC in a Digicel Pro League encounter at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Mucurapo.
During an interview at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on Tuesday night, minutes after watching his clubmates defeat Morvant Caledonia United 3-1 in a Pro League fixture, Cummings stated, “(on Monday) I had a doctor appointment with (the doctor who did) the surgery. He did the scan on it and the bone healed completely.
He said I could go ahead and do full-time training.” Questioned about when he will be back in action, he replied, “all now. I started to train from (Monday) after I (got) the okay. So I’m a full-time player again.” He is hoping to get some gametime before TT ’s trio of friendly internationals, away to Peru (May 23), Uruguay (May 27) and China (June 3).
“As I say I can train full-time now so I’m just like everybody else. I’m competing for a pick.” Cummings, who has netted three times in 13 international appearances for Trinidad and Tobago, admitted, “everything’s good. I’m feeling good, strong. Everything’s coming along.”
However, he was quick to note, “life is a disappointment but it’s just one of them. I (have) overcome it already and I (don’t) even take time to study it. I aint even taking it on actually.” Asked what lessons he learnt from his situation, Cummings replied, “sometimes when you have aims and you have goals, you have to try and achieve it without company.
“This is one of the things I’ve learnt about this incident, trying to achieve your goals (you) have to try and achieve it alone. You always have to be focusing on one direction and this is just what it teach me.” He was grateful for the support he got from North East Stars during his recovery process.
“I must say they stick out with me and I want to thank them for that. I didn’t really expect them to go the full 100 (percent) with me, so I really want to thank them for that.” Finally, what was the support like from his family and friends?
“The family is always there. I want to thank my family, my girl, my father, my mother, my close friends, the national team players, the Sports Minister (Darryl) Smith, everybody who’s part they played, the strangers who come and pray I really want to thank everyone for giving me that support. That was nice.