Rigorous testing on the cards for local Reggae Boyz

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Jamaican Football Federation has confirmed it will carry out extensive COVID-19 testing of locally-based national players, before the squad leaves for next month’s international friendly doubleheader against Saudi Arabia.

Despite the high financial costs, players are scheduled to undergo a minimum of three tests, with JFF general secretary Dalton Wint highlighting the importance of the squad’s health and stressing the current COVID-19 environment was not “business as usual”.

Jamaica has been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic with 4 186 active cases and 8 638 infections overall. There have been 182 deaths.

“They all have to be tested before we depart the island,” the Gleaner here quoted Wint as saying. 

“The local players will be tested before they go into camp, and they will be tested during camp, and they will be tested within three days of leaving Jamaica for Saudi Arabia.

“This will be excellent for us because we want to ensure that all our players will be going there with a clean bill of health.”

He continued: “It is severe times now because it is not business as usual and so it is going to cost us some money for everyone to do the test, but we haven’t worked out the amount of money it would cost. 

“This is something new for them but like I have said before, this is an official kick-off for the campaign, and so this is one of the ways in which we are moving forward.”

For overseas-based professionals, Wint said the JFF would be relying on the respective clubs to provide testing information but were assured these players were “tested regularly”.

Marquee Reggae Boyz goalkeeper, Andre Blake, who plays for Philadelphia Union in Major League Soccer, had earlier expressed concern about the JFF travel protocols amid the ongoing pandemic.

“Their clubs will have to provide us with the scope of their testing within this period, but we know that they are tested regularly,” Wint explained.

“This makes us very happy that we will be able to get through this and to kick-start our (World Cup) campaign and to show the world that we are ready for this and to show that we can co-exist in this pandemic.”

Jamaica are poised to face Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on November 14 and then again three days later, in their first international assignment since the COVID-19 outbreak.

Concerns have been heightened over player health and safety especially with infection rates across the globe – especially in Europe and North America – spiking sharply in recent weeks.

Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo became the most high profile player to contract the virus while on duty with Portugal recently.

Worldwide, the number of infections have climbed to 42.3 million with deaths standings at 1.1 million.