Club San­do mid­field­er Akeem Humphrey will be hop­ing he has done enough over the past two weeks to make the fi­nal cut when Den­nis Lawrence an­nounces the squad that will trav­el to Cardiff for the in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly on Fri­day against Wales.

Humphrey, a for­mer na­tion­al un­der-20 play­er, has been part of the pro­vi­sion­al train­ing squad and he’s been tak­ing it all in stride get­ting in shape for the up­com­ing lo­cal do­mes­tic sea­son with an eye on se­lec­tion for Wales match and the Con­ca­caf Gold Cup in June.

“It’s been in­tense. The gaffer has put out a plan for us and from my point of view the guys have been do­ing well and putting in the work. Fit­ness wise we are com­ing up to par and with eight more days or so left be­fore we leave. I think every­one is look­ing for­ward to what’s ahead and all up to the task,” Humphrey told TTFA Me­dia.

“The Wales match is a re­al­ly im­por­tant and huge match for us. It would be an ho­n­our to be in the squad for such a match, es­pe­cial­ly as a younger play­er. From here I’ll just be try­ing my best be­cause the aim is to al­so make it on the squad for the Gold Cup so hope­ful­ly I can jus­ti­fy do my best and take it all the way,” he said.

Humphrey, 23, com­pli­ment­ed the work of the Se­nior Team staff, adding that it was ab­solute­ly nec­es­sary for the home-based play­ers to main­tain high lev­els when they are on and off na­tion­al du­ty.

“The in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el is dif­fer­ent from club lev­el so ob­vi­ous­ly we must be at that height in terms of in­ten­si­ty. It’s been a hard but en­cour­ag­ing process. Noth­ing comes easy. For clubs in the Caribbean, it’s nowhere near the stan­dard of the na­tion­al team in terms of train­ing so ob­vi­ous­ly, you have to put in more by your­self but at the end of the day, we are here to work.

“The younger play­ers are will­ing to learn. As a young play­er my­self, we are will­ing to com­mu­ni­cate and work for each oth­er. It’s been phe­nom­e­nal work­ing un­der the cur­rent coach­es. The work has been very good for every mem­ber of the staff. I just try my best as a young play­er to take on board what the coach­es are teach­ing us and try to progress as an in­di­vid­ual,” Humphrey said.

“It is very im­por­tant to keep your­self at that lev­el re­quired for in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ball. There is no time to slack and lack when you are in train­ing with the na­tion­al team. You al­ways have to put in the ex­tra work. I al­ways try to take back to the club what­ev­er I learn at the na­tion­al team and try to help as many pay­ers as I can,” he added.