By Daraine Luton, Staff ReporterVETERAN DEFENDER Ian 'Pepe' Goodison will not play in this weekend's crucial World Cup qualifier against Haiti at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
Goodison injuried a hamstring muscle yesterday during training at the team's Sunrise Home hotel ground in Miami.
"Goodison is out," technical director Carl Brown told The Gleaner last night. "He is very serious, he tore a harmstring yesterday."
It is the second time in two days that the Jamaica team has suffered through injury to a defender. On Tuesday American-based defender Tyrone Marshall was omitted from the squad because of a persistent knee injury.
Though the squad has lost the services of Goodison and Marshall, Brown said there will not be any replacements.
"No, no replacement," he said. "A Goodsion is always going to take something to the team with him, but we have two defenders in Claude Davis and Damion Stewart, two central defenders who have done very good jobs for us in the past."
With Goodison and Marshall now out, the defensive unit has been reduced to six players: Fabian Davis, Claude Davis, Damion Stewart, Garfield Reid, Gerald Neil and Craig Ziadie. However, Ziadie is not 100 per cent fit as he is said to be nursing his quad muscles.
OTHER INJURIES
But as Carl Brown told The Gleaner, "all the other injuries are healing".
"Theodore Whitmore is recovering, Ricardo Fuller had his first scrimmage today and looked pretty well."
Meanwhile, based on their past record, Brown expressed being uncomfortable about the game.
The Jamaicans had to work hard in their initial qualifying games in the most recent World Cup campaigns and Brown, speaking to The Gleaner via telephone, said he is "worried" his team might find it difficult to ease past the Haitians.
"I am always worried about every team we play," Brown said.
"We are getting into a very crucial game on Saturday. If you look at the history of our World Cup qualification in our 1998 campaign, we played our first game against Suriname, which is not as strong as this Haitian team and we were only able to beat them 1-0.
"In the 2002 campaign we started out in St. Vincent and yet again we were only able to beat them 1-0," added Brown.
Despite the setbacks, Brown says the players are in high sprits and rearing to go.
"The reaction from the players has been very good. They seem committed to everything that we are here to do. They are totally aware of the task at hand," Brown said.
