Danté Leverock, the Bermuda captain, says he and his fellow team-mates are trying their best to prepare for upcoming 2022 World Cup qualifiers under “tough” circumstances brought on by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Bermuda were originally scheduled to travel to Canada last October for their group B opener before facing Aruba at home, Suriname away and Cayman Islands at home.

However, the fixtures were pushed back several months after Fifa and Concacaf decided that international matches scheduled for the original dates were too early considering the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since then it has been announced that Bermuda will begin their World Cup qualifying campaign against group favourites Canada on March 25.

However, the fixture has been thrown in doubt after the Canadian Government imposed stricter restrictions on travellers to combat a more contagious variant of the virus last week.

The country has suspended airline service to Mexico and all Caribbean destinations from January 31 until April 30.

The stricter restrictions also include mandatory PCR testing at the airport for people returning to Canada, as well as making it mandatory for travellers to quarantine in hotels at their own expense when they arrive in the country.

Canada already requires those entering the country to self-isolate for 14 days and to present a negative Covid-19 test taken within three days before arrival.

“It’s been tough, obviously, to prepare with all of the Covid-19 restrictions and the uncertainty of things, especially with players playing abroad and the local league being stopped,” Leverock said. “But we try and control what is controllable, as our coaching staff say.”

Bermuda’s travel plans had been already affected significantly after flights run by Air Canada to Bermuda were temporarily suspended last week until at least April 12.

The airline initially said that its weekly Toronto to Bermuda service would be suspended after its January 8 flight until February 12 “reflecting current market conditions”.

But it later announced that services across the network would be further reduced as part of its Covid-19 Mitigation and Recovery Plan.

Bermuda, who are also scheduled to play Aruba at the National Sports Centre on March 30, held their first training session last week since the domestic season was suspended on December 6 after the Ministry of Health invoked Section 88 of the Public Health Act 1949 to combat the dramatic rise in the Covid-19 cases.

Non-exempt gatherings have been increased from a maximum of ten to 25 after the Government moved to stage two of its four-stage plan to return to sporting activity, paving the way for football clubs to return to full training.

“It feels good to be back in training and we’re working hard,” Leverock said.

“Hopefully soon the cases go down where we are able to get into phase three and four of the health department and sports ministry’s phases so we can start to get into contact and start to play and ramp up our preparations.

“But we are all excited and just hoping that everything works out for us.”

The six group winners at the end of the first round of the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers will progress to the second round.

There, teams will play home and away in a direct elimination format, with the three winners progressing to the final round.

The final round will see those three teams join the five top-ranked teams — Mexico, United States, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Honduras.

The eight teams will play each other home and away, with the top three qualifying directly to the World Cup. The fourth-placed team will qualify for the Intercontinental play-off, scheduled for June 2022.