Coddington Cup hopes dashed by injury
Devonshire Cougars skipper Domico Coddington has talked of his disappointment at not being available for the beginning of Bermuda’s World Cup Qualifying campaign next month as he continues to recover from a foot injury.The winger broke the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot while on duty for the Bermuda Hogges earlier this summer and has been on the sidelines since.Despite the injury, Coddington has been included in Bermuda’s provisional squad for their qualifiers against Trinidad, Barbados and Guyana.But while he will miss the early stages of the qualifying campaign, Coddington remains hopeful of playing some part in the second round group stage.“It’s very disappointing to not be involved in the qualifiers from the beginning, it’s something we had planned for all summer with the Hogges. We were building up for the games so it’s disappointing to not be involved in the full set-up but there is nothing I can do about it,” said Coddington.“Recovery is going pretty well at the moment. Hopefully I’ll be running by the end of the month.“It won’t be anything too hard, some light running so everything is in motion for me to be up and running soon.“Right now it’s not looking good for the first two games but I should be okay for the latter stages of the campaign in October.”Meanwhile, Coddington has expressed his delight at coach Dennis Brown taking over at the Frog Lane club after leaving newly promoted Somerset Trojans.The addition of Brown, Coddington believes, will make Cougars genuine title contenders while also giving former player-coach Kwame Steede the opportunity to focus on his own game. Coddington says that could make all the difference in the team this term.Steede guided the club to back-to-back FA Cup triumphs over Somerset Eagles and Southampton Rangers, while seeing his troops advance to every major final last year.“A coach of Dennis Brown’s quality is always an asset and it is good for the club. He will bring some more structure to the team, this isn’t a knock on the previous coach of the team because we were successful under Kwame.“The thing this does is free him up to play more and focus on his game although he led us to two FA Cups while in charge and in every final last year, so things are pointing in the right direction.“Things can only get better.”