Head coach Winfried Schäfer

England-based defenders Wes Morgan and Adrian Mariappa are among a number of England-based players that are to make a return to the Reggae Boyz team for their upcoming friendly international games against Switzerland and France, respectively.

The team will tackle World Cup qualifiers Switzerland on Friday, May 30 in that country's north-central city, Lucerne. The match comes a mere nine days before the Winfried Schäfer-led Boyz tackle world number 20-ranked France, at the Stade Pierre Maury in Lille.

Schäfer said in an interview yesterday that he will only be selecting Jamaica's best players from Europe for both games against Switzerland and France.

"For the games against Switzerland and France, we will have the best players from England," said Schäfer. "Wes Morgan and (Adrian Mariappa) are good players from England that can help us for a good result," he said.

"I hope to have a very strong team to play against France and Switzerland because these are two teams in the World Cup. I am very happy that we are playing matches against these two very strong teams," Schäfer said.

"This is a test for everybody and everybody can see what level the team is at."

The 81st-ranked Reggae Boyz will have a busy March, during which they will face Caribbean neighbours Barbados (2nd) and Grenada (5th) in Bridgetown and St George's, respectively.

Schäfer added that he will select local players as well as from the United States to participate in both matches against their Caribbean counterparts.

"We will play against Barbados with the local players and players from the United States," said Schäfer. "I think our football is not very good in Jamaica and this is clear and you see it with our matches against Trinidad," he said. "We have to work more, we need more fitness and more tactical training, but it can only happen when we have good pitches to play on," he said.

"We cannot play with only local players, the level is not very high and our local players can learn from the players like Wes Morgan and Mariappa."