Kyle Lightbourne has been forced to introduce seven new faces into his squad for the Digicel Cup.

Nearly half the 18-man for the three-match tournament in St. Vincent will make debuts for the national side as the coach makes good on his promise to replace those who have failed to turn up for squad training.

The coach, who will be playing with wing backs for the first time, admitted yesterday he can “only pick those who turn up to train” and that the travelling squad would be “very different” if all the players he wanted had made themselves available.

He has been given a massive boost, however, as Shaun Goater has declared himself fit for duty following a calf injury while Damon Ming and John Barry Nusum have also returned from their overseas clubs to take part in the first stage of the Gold Cup qualifier.

But the squad leave on Monday without players such as Stephen Astwood, Meshach Wade, David Bascome, Stanton Lewis and Kevin Richards, all of whom miss out with injuries.

“Yes, there are a lot of new faces and that is not ideal,” said Lightbourne, whose squad have been freed from club duties this weekend in the Friendship Trophy for fear of injuries necessitating last-minute changes.

“You never want to have too many new players in one go, but I am not too worried about it. This is the squad I have picked because these are the guys who trained.

“If others had trained and were available and injury-free you might see a very different squad but these are the players we are taking down and I am sure they are capable of doing the job.”

An unprecedented six PHC players are in the squad, already drawing some criticism from the soccer fraternity that Lightbourne seems to have given undue attention to the recently-promoted side - his former club.

“These guys are all in the squad on merit, simple as that,” said Lightbourne, whose very first game in soccer management will take place on Wednesday against Cayman.

“I said from day one that you have to show commitment to the national squad. These guys have done that. Other people have failed to turn up for training, with or without excuses, and they are the guys who aren't coming to St. Vincent.”

In a candid interview before Lightbourne's side enter international competition for the first time since the World Cup exit to El Salvador under Kenny Thompson, the new coach admitted that preparation for the tournament “could have been better”.

“The preparation has not been ideal,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Training could have been better. It is unfortunate that we couldn't get a friendly arranged to give the side a good work-out.

“And there were one or two things that I am not completely happy with from our training sessions but I am confident that we are going to be ready for these games.”

The national side have played warm-up games against Somerset and PHC where the entire squad were given some game time with “a big win and a narrow victory” the results.

Work on a new wing-back formation, likely to feature two from Damon Ming, Robert Wilson and Blenn Bean, has been going well and is Lightbourne's formation of choice.

“I've always enjoyed playing like that,” said Lightbourne, who played under that system at Walsall and Stoke.

“It helps you get the ball in behind the defence and gives your side plenty of width and space. It normally means you will be getting a lot of crosses in and when you have players who are strong in the air like Shaun (Goater) and John Barry (Nusum), it can be very effective.”

Regarding Goater, who has not played for Reading for a month since suffering a recurrence of a calf injury sustained in May, Lightbourne is delighted to have him in the squad

“I spoke to Shaun and he said he had a tough, hard training session and he got through it no problem,” Lightbourne added.

“Assuming there are no problems with him in the next couple of days, we will have him in the side which is a great boost for us.

“Everyone knows what Shaun can do.”

Goater will meet up with the squad in Barbados while Nusum is meeting them in New York. Ming is back on the Island and will train this weekend and then travel down on Monday with his team mates.