ST GEORGE’S, Grenada — Head Coach Theodore Whitmore was left seething yesterday afternoon even as he prepared to configure a Reggae Boyz team to face hosts Grenada in an international friendly encounter here inside the Kirani James Athletic Stadium at 8:00 pm (7:00 pm Jamaica time) today.

The Reggae Boyz are also slated to face Barbados in another friendly international warm-up game next Monday in preparation for the Concacaf Nations League, which is set to kick off on September 9 against Cayman Islands inside Kingston’s National Stadium, Whitmore has selected a 20-man squad for both games. However, on the eve of the team’s departure on Tuesday evening, four Portmore United players were belatedly withdrawn and had to be hastily replaced. Another player, Javain Brown, also withdrew at the 11th hour, opting to take up a scholarship overseas.

Brown was selected as a right back and his withdrawal forced Whitmore into requesting Maliek Howell, the former Manning Cup-winning Jamaica College captain, who had left for the United States also on a scholarship. But merely a few hours to the team’s only training session since arriving here on Wednesday, Whitmore was advised that Howell would not join the group.

And with his squad reduced to 18 and no right back, he was livid.

“When Javain Brown pulled out, I requested Maliek Howell only to hear today that Howell won’t make the trip,” Whitmore told the Jamaica Observer.

“So it leaves the team unbalanced and I will have to play somebody out of position and I don’t have three or four days to ‘try something’, so I’ll have to find a makeshift right back now,” he added.

“To take a player now, for instance a centre half, a midfielder or a striker to play right back, that person will not get a fair chance on this trip to show me what he can do at his right position. If he goes there and plays (well) in the long run I’m not going to look at him at right back when I have a Alvas Powell, a Fisher (Oniel), or other capable players who are out and out right backs, so any way you take it neither the player nor me will benefit, nor will the country,” vented the former Reggae Boy star player.

He continued: “We have to look long term; we have a young set of players with a couple of them playing at this level for the first time and me personally [I] don’t want to send the wrong message to them. I don’t want it to appear as if we are not serious with what we are doing or we are running a joke national team, so it is a cause of concern for me personally.

“It is not one game, but two, and regardless, you have to give these players a fair chance and a good bite at the cherry.”

Jamaica’s senior Boyz have had 10 encounters against Grenada, registering seven victories, two draws and a solitary loss (1-2) in a friendly international in Grenada in 2008. The last time the teams met was at the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament in the United States and Jamaica won 4-0. Their only other friendly match resulted in a 1-0 triumph for Jamaica, also in Grenada in 2002.

Whitmore, who scored both goals for Jamaica as the Reggae Boyz eked out a historic 2-1 victory over Japan in the lone triumph at the 1998 FIFA World Cup Finals in France, is not sure how much pragmatism he’ll be forced to employ, but he’s certain that he will have to compensate in terms of his team selection.

“Well, yes, it has to. We have to weaken some areas to try and at least balance the team for the game tomorrow night. We might take it simple, but playing against these Caribbean neighbours is like them playing their World Cup because they don’t get to play these sort of games on a regular basis, playimg teams like Jamaica, so we know it is going to be difficult, so it doesn’t make sense we sit down and feel like ‘Oh, we are playing against Grenada, and oh, we playing against Barbados. It is the same trend we see like for the Cayman (Islands) game. We are taking it lightly, like ‘oh, we playing against Cayman.

“Now if you look at the last World Cup things change. We don’t have any weak teams again, everybody is preparing and we have to prepare too, we have to lift our standard,” he stressed.

And even as he attempted to steer clear of any controversy or talking points, Whitmore clearly hinted at not being satisfield with preparations for the start of the Nations League.

“No, no. A lot of things per se.

“One is the fact that we have the Cayman Islands game coming up and I don’t think we take the Nations League seriously to know that it is a qualification for the Gold Cup. We have been in the Gold Cup final for the last two [editions] and not seeing Jamaica in the next Gold Cup is going to pose a problem for the country and others and we have to start treating this Nations League like it’s important,” he said.

Last week the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) announced a final warm-up match against South American outfit Ecuador in New Jersey on September 7, two days prior to the kick off of the CONCACAF Nations League. That announcement was met with a number of concerns as it relates to FIFA stipulations regarding a clear 48 hours between international games, as well as advanced communications with clubs of overseas-based players regarding the Nations League and their likely disapproval of releasing players for two games, plus travel within the time frame.

“That is something again that I don’t even want to talk about,” was how Whitmore responded to that issue.

“To show you the level of where the football is now, the coach from Curacao, who will be playing against Grenada in their first Nations League game, is here now to see the Grenada team (play against Jamaica). That’s the level of interest from people who are taking it seriously,” he said, while admitting that his proposal to the JFF hierarchy to have members of his technical staff scout opponents has not been realised.

“Nothing has been done and no plans in place, none whatsoever,” he said.

And while the coach admitted that the loss of the four Portmore United players was a “big blow”, he was even more concerned with the due care meted out to the said players.

“It is a big blow and we have to take into consideration how we value these players. Now, putting myself in these players’ position I would have to ask myself the question going forward if I am a part of the coach’s plans, because I’ve heard it that if it was a European player it wouldn’t have happened. Now when you recall these players how will they see the coach? We haven’t reached out to them to give them an explanation. They were prepared to travel on the day and probably a few hours before they would have heard that they are not going again without any explanation and we have to take these things into consideration because they have feelings as well. And for me it is difficult because the next camp I have, probably I’ll need their services and I don’t know how they are going to take this. We have to look at the technical side of things and I can only deal with the technical side with what happened, but for more information you have to deal with the administration because I requested these players and they were to travel with us.”

Portmore United have progressed to the quarter-finals of the Scotiabank Concacaf League and are set to play their first-leg game away on next week Friday, and they wanted the JFF to provide a confirmed itinerary of their players’ return after next Monday’s game against Barbados and that was not forthcoming and the decision was taken for the players to be released to their club.

The coach concluded that he would be in a better position to settle on a team after the lone training session at the match venue last evening.

“We have to see how the session goes this afternoon and the approach will have to be different because as the technical person I will have to sit and look at someone who I think can do a job for the team on the day, so that’s where it’s at now,” he concluded.

The team will be led by Ladale Richie, and includes goalkeepers Amal Knight and Damion Hyatt, as well as Fabion McCarthy, Ajeanie Talbott, Daniel Green, Peter-Lee Vassell, Fabian Reid, Kaheem Parris, Chevone Marsh, Kevaughn Isaacs, Barrington Pryce, Ricardo Thomas, Alex Marshall, Tevin Shaw, Ray Campbell, Shandel Senior, and Marvin Morgan.