The squad for Bermuda's upcoming Digicel Cup mission will not be announced until the New Year, it emerged yesterday — though injury is now almost certain to rob the team of one of their best defenders.

Boulevard's Stanton Lewis had to be stretchered off in the latter stages of the Dudley Eve Cup clash between the Premier Division leaders and Somerset Trojans last Friday night after twisting his knee badly in an awkward-looking challenge.

The anxious expression on the face of national team manager and Trojans assistant coach Mark Trott, as he watched Lewis being carried to the sidelines, spoke volumes about the defender's perceived importance to the team.

And assistant national coach Paul Scope revealed yesterday he had been told Lewis would need at least a month to recover and will therefore not be available to travel when the team head south to Trinidad on January 5.

"It looks extremely unlikely that Stanton will make it," he said.

"We're obviously very disappointed with that because he is one of the few naturally left-footed players we have who is capable of playing at both centre back and left back if need be.

"He has done everything we have asked of him so far and Kyle and I have always been impressed by his consistency and his work ethic. He's a loss, no question, but we'll have to adjust as best we can."

Scope, who flew to England this week for three days with family in his hometown Newcastle, will be back on the Island today in time to take a training session at the National Sports Centre tomorrow morning.

The Englishman said that head coach Kyle Lightbourne, who is currently away on a family vacation, was not due to return to the Island until January 2, when the 18-man squad will most likely be unveiled.

And he fended off the suggestion that Lightbourne should not have gone on holiday so close to the team's crucial qualification games against the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

"What's got to be remembered is that our entire preparation was designed under the impression that we would be playing those games in Bermuda at the beginning of December," he said.

"If we failed to finish top of the group we would have been out of the competition and if we qualified, the finals are not until almost the middle of January.

"With that in mind Kyle booked his family holiday for the end of December, but when things changed and both the dates and the venue were altered, Kyle found himself in a bit of an awkward situation.

"But we talked about it and I was the one who urged him not to cancel it. I know I'm here to assist him but I'm also perfectly capable of running one or two training sessions in Kyle's absence and it has not been a problem."

Bermuda play the Dominican Republic on January 7 in Port of Spain before taking on Haiti two days later — with the group winners going through to the eight-team finals which begin on January 12.

Should Bermuda qualify, they would then have to play three round-robin games against Martinique, Barbados and hosts Trinidad and Tobago to decide who progresses to the competition's semi-finals.