Two players failed drug test

One of the play­ers is a for­mer na­tion­al un­der-17 and 20 youth mid­field­er who made his in­ter­na­tion­al de­but ver­sus Cu­raçao in June 2015, while the oth­er is a reg­u­lar to the se­nior na­tion­al team, who plays as a strik­er. Both were im­me­di­ate­ly dropped by the lanky coach, whose ini­tia­tive it was, for ran­dom drug test­ing to be im­ple­ment­ed when he as­sumed the po­si­tion of T&T head coach.

It was ini­tial­ly ru­moured that five play­ers were found pos­i­tive from the test­ing, but a source close to the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion con­firmed that it was on­ly two that had failed when test­ed

The squad, which con­sists of the coun­try's top play­ers such as goal­keep­er Adri­an Fon­cette, strik­er Shah­don Win­ches­ter, mid­field­er Nathan Lewis, Mar­vin Philip and strik­er Ataullah Guer­ra, is set to wing out on Sun­day.

Yes­ter­day new gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the TTFA Ca­ma­ra David refuse to com­ment on the mat­ter, say­ing the coach is ex­pect­ed to hold a press con­fer­ence be­fore the squad leaves, to ad­dress the me­dia. David who re­placed Justin Lat­apy-George, whose con­tract ex­pired in No­vem­ber last year, said the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion has agreed to have just one voice on mat­ters re­lat­ed to foot­ball, rather than hav­ing a num­ber of peo­ple talk to the me­dia.

"Lawrence will give all the in­for­ma­tion that is re­quired at the press con­fer­ence," David ex­plained. At­tempts to reach Lawrence were un­suc­cess­ful and it is un­sure if any fur­ther ac­tion will be tak­en against the play­ers by the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion or the clubs they rep­re­sent.

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TTFA Statement
TTFA Media.

All members of Senior Men’s National Team underwent mandatory medical testing on March 7th and 8th as part of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association’s anti-doping programme.

The tests were conducted by the TTFA’s Medical team at the Ato Boldon Stadium. The players have been addressed and a communication has gone out to their clubs. The TTFA will continue its anti-doping programme as necessary and preparations remain ongoing under head coach Dennis Lawrence as the team looks ahead to departing for Wales on Sunday for its international friendly on March 20th.

FIFA and CONCACAF’s regulations require compliance with anti-doping from all football associations internationally, and itself carries out the drug-testing in international competitions. The TTFA will continue its medical testing leading into upcoming international competitions such as the CONCACAF Gold Cup, CONCACAF Nations League  and 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign.