NATIONAL FOOTBALL team midfielder Keron “Ball Pest” Cummings is continuing to work on his fitness, as he seeks to earn selection on the Trinidad and Tobago squad for the March 24 and 28 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Panama and Mexico respectively.
The 28-year-old Cummings featured as a second-half substitute on Friday as Trinidad and Tobago whipped Barbados 2-0 at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva in a friendly football international.
This game was Cummings’ first at the international level since sustaining a gunshot wound to his right leg on December 2015.
According to Cummings, “The first game coming back out, the confidence started to come back. I feel good to know that I could come on and still get (to perform).
“The body feels good as I start back to get fit,” added Cummings.
“And we still come out and gave a good performance.
So everything is falling back into place.” Concerning his overall performance on Friday, Cummings said, “In your first game you always try to catch back your rhythm and we were (already) on top two-nil so I was just pacing myself and getting back to the normal me and getting all the players involved in the attack.”
The Central FC midfielder admitted that he has been doing extra work to regain full fitness, even though it is the off-season (the 2017 TT Pro League season is set to start in late April).
“Personally, I have no off-season,” said Cummings.
“Every day I’m doing my training because I have to get back to exactly (how I was before) and more - better, fitter and stronger. So it don’t really have any off-season for me at this point in time.” The 2016- 2017 season was his first at Central FC, having previously starred at North East Stars (now Ma Pau Stars).
“It’s the first time I ever had to go into a team that was winning,” he acknowledged. “I wasn’t getting as much playing time as I (was) accustomed but it’s a winning team.
“I just had to keep pushing myself, knowing that I had an injury to recover (from). It was a little task but it was for the good,” he ended.