Alvas Powell walks out of Reggae Boyz team at Gold Cup

BALTIMORE, Maryland:

ALVAS POWELL has turned his back on his country, walking out of Jamaica’s senior men’s national football team in-tournament at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

“When he does not want the shirt of Jamaica or the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) I cannot help him,” said Winfried Schafer, Jamaica’s head coach.

“For me he is the past. I have to watch what we’re doing now,” he added.

The defender packed his bags and left the team on Wednesday morning ahead of its departure from Toronto to Baltimore.

Powell joined up with the Jamaica team in Los Angeles for the Gold Cup and sat out the team’s first two matches as a substitute when they tackled Costa Rica and drew 2-2, then won 1-0 against Canada in Houston.

On Tuesday, he came on as a second-half substitute in Jamaica’s 1-0 win over El Salvador, which enabled them to top the group and move on to the quarter-finals, where they will meet Haiti on Saturday.

The Jamaica team was already short on players for that match up, with news yesterday that central defender Jermaine Taylor has been ruled out of the tournament with a hamstring injury sustained in the El Salvador match.

Also, a second yellow card to midfielder Je-Vaughn Watson and a red card - for two bookable offences - to striker Darren Mattocks, also in the El Salvador match, make them also unavailable for the Haiti semi-final.

Schafer says he will add Omar Holness to his squad, along with another player.

Regarding Powell, he said “I told [Powell], your time is coming, we need all players, we need Michael Hector, we need you, we need Dawkins [Simon], we need Ryan Thompson”.

“Now we need him, he told me he don’t want to play. You have no chance when you think about I, I, I. No, it’s we that’s important; we, the team, that’s important,” Schafer emphasised.

Prior to the Gold Cup, Jamaica participated in the Copa America as a guest team.

Powell was not a part of the squad, as he was not released by his club, which had no obligation to do so.

Since joining up with the Jamaica team, Powell had been muttering disapproval at not being a part of the starting line-up and threatened to walk out.

Now he has followed up on that promise.