Rougier axed from W/Cup

Beenhakker had indicated last month when he announced the squad that one player would be dropped and following Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Peru at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, at Mucurapo the axe fell on experienced utility player Rougier.

The Dutch coach had invited Rougier back into the national team for a training camp in Fort Lauderdale in January and subsequently named him on the 24-man squad ahead of the Peru match.

He confessed to having the hard task of letting Rougier go and he explained this after having a lengthy discussion with the player.

“The guy worked fantastically and he did everything he had to do to try and make it and in the end I had to make a decision. I am sorry but it was not enough because he showed me he is a great professional and a great guy but he was not enough in terms of the conditions to make the team,” Beenhakker said yesterday.

Beenhakker has also invited Germany-based winger Evans Wise to join the squad of 23 inclusive of injured LA Galaxy forward Cornell Glen.

Wise will be with the Germany-bound squad in Manchester, England and up until the end of the training camps in Austria in the event that Glen does not recover from his hamstring injury in time.

“We have the 23 players now but we also have the Cornell Glen situation. On one side I promised him that he can take his time to recover but obviously with the team preparation in mind.

“I don’t want to put pressure by giving him a deadline. He will miss a big part of team preparation but he will work everyday with a physiotherapist and I will give him a fair chance.

“At the same time I had a very long conversation with Evans Wise and he will come over to England to be involved in the team preparations until the end of the camp in Austria.

“I told him very clearly that it’s a 50-50 situation because if Cornell is fit then I have to send him (Wise) home and then if Cornell is not fit then I have the bad job to release him from the squad,” Beenhakker said. The Dutchman stressed that he did not enjoy the part of having to make the latest decision before the team departs for Manchester tomorrow but he had no choice in the matter.

“This is always the weird part of my profession because you have to make decisions like these just by your head but you are also human and it’s not easy to send a guy home like Anthony who I know has worked hard for the past two weeks. You also have an emotional relationship with your players but that’s part of the job,” Beenhakker added.

He also spoke of ensuring that the entire squad be in ready shape for the Group “B” matches against Sweden, England and Paraguay on June 10, 15, and 20 respectively in Germany.

“I will prepare him (Wise) the same as the other guys. Normally you don’t make six changes in a match like last night (versus Peru) but as I said before, I don’t only have to prepare 11 guys but instead the entire squad because if one player gets injured before we play Sweden then the other has to step in,” he said.

TT Squad —

Kelvin Jack (Dundee), Shaka Hislop (West Ham United), Clayton Ince (Coventry City)

Dennis Lawrence (Wrexham) Cyd Gray (CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh), Marvin Andrews (Glasgow Rangers), Brent Sancho (Gillingham), Ian Cox (Gillingham), Atiba Charles (W Connection), Avery John (New England Revolution), Silvio Spann (unattached), Chris Birchall (Port Vale), Aurtis Whitley (CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh), Evans Wise (Waldhof Mannheim), Anthony Wolfe (Jabloteh), Densill Theobald (Falkirk), Carlos Edwards (Luton Town), Dwight Yorke (Sydney FC), Russell Latapy (Falkirk), Stern John (Coventry City), Kenwyne Jones (Southampton FC), Collin Samuel (Dundee United), Jason Scotland (St Johnstone), Cornell Glen (LA Galaxy).