PANAMA CITY, Panama — After suffering an ugly, but temporary concussion playing for his Norwegian club, Jamaican midfielder Rodolph Austin is raring to go for the Reggae Boyz as they are set to commence their World Cup qualifying campaign against Guatemala in Kingston next Friday.

After being kept out of action for SK Brann for four matches due to a head injury sustained in play, Austin returned for the team on Monday against Tromso in a losing cause and the no-nonsense Jamaican is itching for more action.

He was expected to start for Jamaica in their high-stakes return-leg friendly against Central American nemesis Panama here last night, but the six-footer was already looking beyond that match-up as he drooled for more action.

“It’s always a good feeling to be back and playing, and to be honest it’s an honour and every player should take that into consideration… I will just come back and do the best I can for the team and if my best is good enough, then it’s okay for me,” he said from the Hotel Panama on Thursday, a day after arriving from Norway to join his teammates in this Central American capital.

Austin, affectionately called ‘Rudi’, said a favourable result against Guatemala at the National Stadium will set the tone for the remainder of Group A of the CONCACAF semi-final round tournament.

“It would be very good if we could get a good result in that game and get us off to a good start… you know every game is tough and you know that those Central American teams like to keep the ball and dive and those kinds of things, so we have to take all of those things into consideration,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Not to be outdone, Austin believes Jamaica have their own set of assets, that if applied properly, will ensure success. “We have good speed, skilful players and goal-scorers, and I think if we use those things to our advantage, we can get the better of them (Guatemala),” said the former Portmore United star.

The Clarendon native who celebrated his 27th birthday yesterday, says for the Boyz to be an effective fighting force, they must quickly get the on-field “chemistry” going.

“We just have to find the right team and the right chemistry and I don’t think we could fail by not qualifying… when you look at the group on paper it’s possible for us to qualify (for the next round), but we must remember that football is played on the pitch,” said the tough-tackling Austin, who made his debut for the senior Boyz in 2007.

Capped some 45 times for Jamaica, the glum-faced player said barring his injury lay-off which lasted a couple of weeks, his season at Brann has been fairly good as he was able to figure in eight times of 12 matches so far.

“The team itself started badly, and for me I missed some games as I had a concussion, but we started winning some games and now we will have to just take it from there and start to get some points,” he noted.

Brann are in 11th position in the 16-team Tippeligaen on 13 points, 12 behind leaders Molde.

Before moving to Norway in 2008, the in-demand Austin came close to joining English Premier League outfit and club of teammate Ricardo Fuller, Stoke City, but the deal didn’t go through as he wasn’t granted a work permit.