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Midfielder Khaleem Hyland got the green light to return home last week to play for this country against Peru but it didn’t come without a bit of hesitancy from the management team at Racing Genk.

The former Jabloteh player didn’t play for T&T since November 2011 and felt it was necessary for him to join the squad for the Peru friendly.

Once the federation makes a request for a player 14 days or more before the match day that falls on a FIFA date, the club has to oblige and release the player. However, the downside to that is sometimes the player could find difficulty in regaining a spot in the club’s line-up if the head coach is not impressed by the player’s absence from the club.

“They find it difficult for me to fly so far to play this game against Peru because we had a very important game coming up on the weekend but it’s important for me to come and play for my country because I haven’t done that in a long time and it was a good opportunity for me before the Gold Cup to get back in the mix with the team,” said Hyland, who ended up playing the full 90 minutes in Genk’s 2-0 win over Beerschot AC on the weekend.

“It always feels good to return and play for the national team and I thought the performance was a pretty good one versus Peru. We achieved most of what we wanted to in the match and it’s a matter of building on this and getting it right for better results heading into the Gold Cup.