DAVID NAKHID is out of today's friendly international against the Bermuda national team and will also most likely miss Trinidad and Tobago's upcoming CONCACAF World Cup qualifying game versus Panama because of an injury picked up last Wednesday in a friendly against Peruvian club champions Alianza Lima.
The T&T Warriors play their final warm-up match against the Bermudans from 6.30 p.m. today at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, before hosting Panama in an important World Cup qualifier on June 4.
And yesterday, several football sources informed the Express that Nakhid had quit the team as a player and may be given a different role by national coach Leo Beenhakker.
Amidst those reports, Nakhid watched yesterday's training session from the sidelines. Normally quite vocal, an unusually cagey Nakhid would only say that he was injured and coach Beenhakker would be holding a meeting soon to decide what was best for the team.
Nakhid further said he was very impressed by the progress of the team and the training method of the Dutchman was an "eye opener".
Beenhakker conducted two training sessions yesterday, one in the morning at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, and another yesterday evening at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
Having his first outing under Beenhakker was Coventry City striker Stern John. Speaking to the media after the afternoon session in Port of Spain, John said he was late in returning to the team because he needed ten days to recover from injuries after a long English season.
And even after the session had ended, John spent some extra time working on his finishing. He said the new Beenhakker regime would make sure everyone in the team worked hard.
"No one's sure of playing on the fourth," he said. "So everyone has to come out and play hard for their pick."
And Beenhakker is promising to give his players more time on the pitch against Bermuda today, in order to make a proper assessment of their progress.
The coach has 22 players to choose from, including Glasgow Rangers defender Marvin Andrews, ex-Dundee defender Brent Sancho and goalkeeper Kelvin Jack, who were all due to return to Trinidad last night.
Beenhakker said he would decide today whether Andrews and Sancho would play any part in the match following their long journey back home.
"This is of course another training exercise for the team before the match against Panama and we will use it as a chance to see more of the players before we select the final team on the weekend," Beenhakker told Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) media officer Shaun Fuentes yesterday morning.
"It presents us with a chance to see how much progress has been made over the past week or so and I have also promised the players too that there won't be too many changes during the game so it means they will have more to show what they have to offer.
"It's a chance to give everyone an opportunity to play so those who don't take the field in the first game will get a chance on the weekend when we play Bermuda in a second game," added the former Dutch national coach.