The Bermuda Football Association expect to have strikers Nahki Wells and Rai Simons available for the island’s Caribbean Cup second-round matches against French Guiana and Dominican Republic in June.

The English season ends next month and Wells has expressed his desire to play in the competition after missing Bermuda’s preliminary-round group matches against Cuba and French Guiana last month.

The three teams finished level on points, but Cuba missed out on advancing on goal difference after suffering a 3-0 defeat away to French Guiana who showed themselves in Bermuda to be a quality side.

Bermuda will play French Guiana away in their next group match on June 1 before taking on Dominican Republic on home soil three days later.

“I haven’t ruled myself out of the next set of games, but we will see what happens,” Wells told The Royal Gazette last month.

“If I’m fit and healthy and I can make it then I don’t see why I wouldn’t put myself forward to represent my country. There’s a lot of football left for me to play and the most important thing is staying fit and preparing well and doing well for Huddersfield.”

Wells has two matches remaining with Sky Bet Championship side Huddersfield Town and needs two more goals to finish the season with 20 goals. They play Bristol City away on Saturday before ending their campaign at home to Brentford next weekend.

It would be a tremendous boost for Bermuda to have both Wells and Rai Simons, of Chesterfield, return for the next round.

Simons, 20, has been on the bench for the League One side in the past few matches.

“Everything is in preliminary stages, they are finishing up their seasons and we’re allowing them to do that while having discussions with some of them,” Maurice Lowe, the BFA technical director, said yesterday.

“We are having discussions with many of the overseas players but haven’t finalised anything as yet.”

Another player who could also feature is goalkeeper Freddy Hall, who is playing for Limerick in the Irish SSE Aircity League First Division.

Hall, who has been in good form for the runaway league leaders, was not involved in the first round.

“Freddy is a fantastic goalkeeper who has always turned out for Bermuda when we’ve asked him,” Lowe said. “Definitely we’ll reach out to Freddy and have him join us if it is possible.”

Dominican Republic are ranked 18 places above Bermuda in the Fifa world rankings and should provide tough opposition in the home match.

“It’s going to be a challenge, every match has its challenges and obstacles,” Lowe said. “We were pleased with the result against French Guiana in the first round.

“Obviously we won’t be able to surprise them, we know something about them but they also know something about us so it makes the return encounter very interesting.

“French Guiana beat Cuba at home and we’re mindful of that. But we’re still backing ourselves and believing in ourselves to go to French Guiana and get a positive result so that we can give ourselves a good opportunity at home against Dominican Republic.”

Lowe insists there is still an opportunity for local-based players to stake a claim for a place in coach Andrew Bascome’s squad.

“The coach wants to have an open policy whereby any of the local-based players are more than welcome to join,” Lowe said.

“We want to leave no stone left unturned, recognising that for the final trip we can only take 18 to 20 players.

“That’s one of the harsh realities of football worldwide, you can’t pick everyone.”

Dominican Republic finished top of their qualifying group on goal difference after losing 2-1 away to Curaçao before a 2-0 victory over Barbados.

The second round will involve five groups, with the winners and four best runners-up advancing to the third round to be held from October 3 to 9.

Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago have received a bye to the third round because of their involvement in World Cup qualifying matches.