Jamaica defiant despite King exit

Jamaican soccer chief Crenston Boxhill is adamant his side remain fully focussed on Saturday’s clash with England despite the expulsion of Marlon King from the Reggae Boyz squad.

King will miss the final friendly before Sven-Goran Eriksson’s England team head to the World Cup, with conflicting reasons given for the Watford striker’s departure.

While his newly-promoted Premiership club have insisted King was booted out because he criticised Jamaica’s training facilities during their two-game England tour, reports from the Caribbean claim he launched a volley of abuse at the team management at a 2.30am disciplinary meeting after breaking a curfew on Tuesday night.

Charlton’s Jason Euell and Jamal Campbell-Rice have also been fined 50% of their match fees after returning to Jamaica’s Manchester base later than agreed, although the threat to expel that pair has now been removed.

Sheffield Wednesday’s Deon Burton has been drafted into the squad but, coming on the back of a 4-1 hammering to Ghana at Leicester on Monday, it hardly suggests England will meet a harmonious Jamaican side in front of a sell-out crowd at Old Trafford this weekend.

However, Jamaican Football Federation president Boxhill remains defiant and believes Jamaica will provide England with the stern test Eriksson is looking for.

“If one of your children breaks the rules, you deal with it accordingly,” said Boxhill. “It is the same concept.

“What has happened has been handled internally. Now we have to unite and move on.

“We are a tight bunch. We had a team meeting earlier and everyone contributed. Now it is time to put the matter behind us.

“It is fair to say the result we got against Ghana was not what we were looking for but we will be doing everything possible to get a positive result on Saturday.”