Trinidad and Tobago’s attacking pair of Kevin Molino and Levi Garcia have been ruled out of the upcoming Concacaf Nations League because of injury.
This was confirmed by the TT Football Association (TTFA).
In a Facebook post on Saturday, the TTFA wished Molino “a speedy and safe recovery.”
It said, “Kevin sustained a knee injury in training with Columbus Crew last week and will miss the club’s encounter with New York Red Bulls today.
“He has also been ruled out of TT's upcoming Concacaf Nations League matches against Bahamas on March 24 and Nicaragua on March 27. He is likely to be sidelined for at least three weeks.”
And on Sunday, the association announced that Garcia would also miss out on both international fixtures. This comes after Garcia suffered a first- to second-degree contusion in the right adductor during a Greek Super League for his club AEK Athens, almost one month ago.
On March 12, Garcia returned to action against Olympiacos but may have re injured himself.
TTFA said, “We would like to take this opportunity to keep Levi Garcia in our thoughts and wish him a safe and successful recovery from an injury which re-occurred during his second-half appearance last weekend in AEK Athens' match with Olympiacos.”
The absence of both top-flight players puts a major void in TT’s attacking line and head coach Angus Eve will have to do some shuffling and lean heavily on his locally-based options for the tournament.
TT are currently second (nine points) in Group C of the Concacaf Nations League – League B. They trail leaders Nicaragua (ten pts) and are ahead of Bahamas (three points) and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (one point).
The group winner will be promoted to League A and automatically books a place in the 2023 Concacaf Golf Cup. The runners-up will be placed in the preliminary round of the Gold Cup.
Last week, the TT men’s team played two away friendlies against Jamaica in preparation for the Nations League. They won the first 1-0 and drew the second 0-0. In both matches, TT played without the majority of their foreign-based players.
