President of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Michael Ricketts says that he will be holding talks with former Manchester United and West Ham midfielder Ravel Morrison after the England-born player rejected an invitation to represent the Reggae Boyz at the ongoing Concacaf Gold Cup in the United States.
The 26-year-old Morrison, who represented England at the youth level, received his Jamaican citizenship over a year ago but is yet to make his debut for the Reggae Boyz after expressing an interest to represent the country at the senior international level.
In fact, Morrison did not accept the invitation by head coach Theodore Whitmore for the Concacaf Nations League match against Suriname in November last year, raising doubts at that point about his interest in representing the country.
He was then selected as a member of Jamaica’s provisional 40-man squad the Gold Cup tournament, but did not make the final 25-man group for the tournament.
Ricketts told The Gleaner that he is concerned with Morrison’s prolonged absence for the Reggae Boyz set-up and shared that he would be having dialogue with the player in the coming weeks.
“I have not spoken to him personally, but I will have to do so very soon,” said Ricketts.
“Initially, it was said that he had some injuries and he wasn’t fully recovered and then I was told that he had some issues travelling to the US, but I have not gotten that from him personally,” Ricketts added.
“I will try and have a discussion with him myself because the team manager has said to me that he still wants to play for Jamaica, but he needs to sort out these issues,” Ricketts pointed out.
The JFF boss underlined that his federation would love to have Morrison in the Reggae Boyz unit and believes that he would certainly help to add some quality to the Jamaican team.
“He had shown much interest initially because he came to Jamaica himself, paying his own expenses and he worked with us to get his Jamaican passport,” said Ricketts.
“He has a lot of quality, and so we would certainly love to have him here playing for the Reggae Boyz because I believe that he has something to offer to our national team,” he said.
Morrison, who has also had troubled stints at Serie A Club Lazio and Queens Park Rangers in the Championship, is reportedly on trial at newly promoted English Premier League side Sheffield United. He has, in the last two years, also played at Atlas in Mexico and Ostersunds in Sweden.