PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Football legend Dwight Yorke is expected to retire from international duty following Trinidad & Tobago’s World Cup qualifier against Honduras next Saturday.
Sources with knowledge of the situation said Yorke had not found a club since being released from Sunderland FC at the end of the last English Premiership season and was short of match fitness.
Next Saturday’s qualifier comes almost a month since Trinidad & Tobago’s last international when they beat El Salvador 1-0 at the Hasely Crawford here.
For that game, Yorke was replaced as captain by Dennis Lawrence and featured only as a 71st minute substitute.
He is now tipped to take up a role as deputy to T&T head coach and close friend Russell Latapy, especially with current assistant coach Zoran Vranes leaving on Sunday for the final warm-up tour match before the young Soca Warriors do battle at the Under-20 World Cup in Egypt.
When contacted, Soca Warriors manager David Muhammad did not confirm or deny a possible role for Yorke as part of the management team.
It had been rumoured earlier this month that Yorke was training with the John Barnes-managed Tranmere Rovers in England with a view to a move to the League One club, but a contract never materialized.
The British summer transfer window closes on Tuesday.
Yorke has been capped close to 75 times for T&T in a checkered career at the highest level which has seen him quit international football twice before.
He has had a glittering club career in England, however, with outstanding spells at Aston Villa and then European superpowers Manchester United with whom he captured the treble of the Champions League, Premiership and FA Cup in 1999.
Yorke had unrewarding spells at Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham before heading to Australia where he helped Sydney FC win the inaugural A-League.
He subsequent returned to England to play for Roy Keane’s Sunderland in the Championship League and helped inspire the northeast team to promotion to the Premiership.