'I took Teddy under my wings'

HEAD coach Theodore Whitmore yesterday dismissed rumours that a rift between himself and Jermaine 'Teddy' Johnson had kept the Tivoli Gardens striker out of the national team, pointing out that over the years he has been the one looking out for the pacey player.

"I have never had any rift with any player or any coaching staff, whatsoever, because in football I don't keep rifts. If you have to make a decision, an unpopular decision, we make the decision and we move on.

"If you call Teddy and ask him, I am the one who took Teddy under my wings when he was in the national team," Whitmore said of his former teammate.

"I am the one who told the manager to put Teddy in my room, so there is nothing that me and Teddy can have. We go far back. When we were in England, every day we were together, so sometimes people say things," he added.

Explaining Johnson's belated recall after not initially being selected in the squad, ,Whitmore said the 36-year-old was reconsidered.

"When we looked around again and saw what Teddy had done in the local Premier League with his international experience, it gives me the pleasure to invite him," he explained.

"When you look at the games that we have coming up. We have Peru on the 13th (June) and right after that we have the Caribbean Cup. The Peru game is a FIFA date and the Caribbean Cup is a non-FIFA date and so we won't have the availability of most of the players overseas," he added.