Its official ! Dwight Yorke will be arriving from London on flight BW 901 at 5:25pm on Friday afternoon to rejoin the National Senior Football Team for next Wednesdays CONCACAF final round 2006 World Cup qualifying match against the United States at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain.
Yorke, who incidentally played his last competitive match for this country against the United States in 2001, will check in with the rest of the team tomorrow evening at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and travel with his teammates on Saturday morning to Tobago where they will prepare and then return for Wednesdays encounter.
Special Adviser to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation Jack Warner, from his office on Edward Street, Port of Spain, made the announcement of Yorkes return, stating that the local governing body and the team management welcomed the return of the former Manchester United player.
On behalf of the Football Federation, we do wish to officially confirm that Dwight Yorke will be here to play on Wednesday against the United States There have been all kinds of rumours over the past three weeks over his future but he and I have been holding discussions over the last week and these discussions have now been very fruitful and have also been amicable all along, Warner stated.
Both of us, in the national interest, have agreed to put the past behind us and to look at the present situation and ahead to what lies in the future because we both believe that this is the best chance this country will ever have for qualifying for a World Cup for a long time to come.
Warner said that officials at Birmingham City have been receptive to Yorkes return to the international arena.
We are very thankful too that his coach released him from duty this Saturday because they have a game against Manchester United and though he was committed to playing against his old club, he is also committed to playing for his country now and discussions have allowed him to travel earlier and be here with us.
The discussions have always been between us because we have been the two protagonists, for want of a better term and we have decided to bury the hatchet in the national interest. Bertille (St Clair) specifically requested this because he felt that Dwight would be an asset to the team in several ways and I had no choice but to oblige to that request and I of course have no regret about this.
Yorke meantime, said he was excited and ready to put his best foot forward for the country in its quest to get to Germany in 2006.
Its been three years since I played in a full international for the country and in many ways I am looking forward to this return, not only because I feel we have a good chance of getting to the World Cup in 2006 but also because I have decided that I must come and make a contribution in whatever way I can which in this time would be to play for the country again, Yorke told TTFF Media on Thursday morning.
Its no secret that myself and coach Bertille St Clair go a long way back and we have had our successes together going back to the Youth World Cup in 1991 and I hope that we can bring that sort of success back to our country by getting to this World Cup, he added.
The former Aston Villa man went on to say that he is relishing the time to settle back in national colours.
I know some of the guys very well and weve played together before so I dont think I should have a problem getting back in the run of things with the national team. At the moment Im just thrilled to be a Trinidad and Tobago player again, Yorke ended.