Warner in, Primus out.
Trinidad and Tobago’s head coach Otto Pfister has invited eleven overseas-based professional to join the National Team for upcoming back to back 2014 World Cup Qualifiers against Bermuda and Barbados.
Pfister will begin training with these players on August 28 with a couple players arriving a day later due to club commitments. Pfister will also hold sessions this Friday and Saturday with the home-based players who have been invited for the training camp.
Leading the pack is team captain and Stoke City striker Kenwyne Jones along with Carlos Edwards (Ipswich Town), Khaleem Hyland (Racing Genk, Belgium), Chris Birchall (LA Galaxy), Keon Daniel (Philadelphia Union, USA), Julius James (Columbus Crew, USA), Jake Thomson (Kettering Town, England), Andre Boucaud (York City, England), goalkeeper Anthony Warner (Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand), Clyde Leon (Corporacion Deportiva Itagui, Colombia) and Lester Peltier (AS Trencin, Slovakia).
Defender Robert Primus, based in Kazakhstan, was not considered having sustained an injury which requires that he visits Moscow for treatment. English-based defender Jlloyd Samuel has been excused as he remains in search of a club.
Warner last played for T&T in a 2-0 win over Iceland in 2006. Among the clubs he has played with include Celtic, Liverpool, Norwich and Fulham among others. Boucaud was part of the T&T squad in the early stages of the 2006 campaign, last appearing in a 3-0 loss to Mexico in Puebla. He has six caps for T&T.
“We will have three or four training sessions with the overseas-based players in the team. That happens everywhere in international football today. I’m not worried about it. We have been monitoring the progress of these players every week with their clubs and we will do this again this weekend just to have an idea of the fitness of each player. Then we train here with the entire squad of players and prepare for the match against Bermuda,” Pfister told TTFF Media.
Ipswich Town’s Edwards says he raring to kick off the campaign, which will be his fourth World Cup qualifying campaign with 78 international appearances to his name
My game face is already on,” Edwards told TTFF Media. “I’m looking forward a whole lot to returning and joining the team. I believe our squad is strong and once we prepare well and put our minds and hearts to it then I see no reason why this team cannot advance in the qualifiers and get to Brazil.
We know that Bermuda made things rough for us in the first match of the last campaign so we definitely know what to expect this time around. We will deal with them accordingly,” he added.
The final squad inclusive of the home-based players will be announced later this week.
The qualifier versus Bermuda kicks off at 4:30pm at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on September 2 . T&T will then travel to meet Barbados September 6 in another qualifier in Bridgetown.