Town defender eager to make up for lost time with Jamaica during Nations League qualifiers

Luton defender Amari’i Bell is looking forward to ending his near year-long absence from the Jamaica national squad after being called up for international duty by new Reggae Boyz manager Steve McClaren for the upcoming Concacaf Nations League matches.

The 30-year-old, who made his debut in March 2021, has won 17 caps in total, 15 of them coming after joining Luton in June 2021. Having become a first team regular with Jamaica, Bell’s last outing was against Haiti in September 2023, as a serious hamstring injury suffered in early March sidelined the left-footed centre half from the Nations League finals and following Copa America tournament over the summer.

Now fully fit once more and back in the Town line-up, starting Luton’s last three Championship matches against Portsmouth, Preston and QPR, also playing 45 minutes against the R’s in the Carabao Cup, the defender was named by McClaren, who has replaced Heimir Hallgrimsson’ in the dug-out, for the games with Cuba on Saturday and Honduras the following Wednesday.

Discussing his return with JFFF Live, Bell said: “It feels amazing to be back. It’s been a long time, but I’m happy to be here. It was a big injury, one of the first of my career so mentally it was hard to get back in a good place. It's been a while now and I went through the rough patch, but I'm feeling good, in good spirits. It was a long time out, I had my ups and downs through the rehab process and towards the end of it I started to see the light a lot more, so mentally my head is in a much better place."

Jamaica, who have Aston Villa winger Leon Bailey back in the team, go into the fixtures on the back of a disappointing Copa America campaign in which they lost all three of their matches. They did however beat Panama 1-0 to finish third in the Concacaf Nations League Finals back in March, as having to watch on from afar, Bell continued: “I was up to all hours watching the games and it was good when we finished third in the Nations League.

"I was gutted that I couldn’t be there for the celebrations, it was a proud moment for everyone. Even participating in the Copa, it was great, unfortunately we didn’t do as well as we thought we could have but it was good stepping stones. The plan is to go one step better this time. That’s the plan and there’s no reason why we can't do it. Everyone believes in ourselves and what we can do, so we’re going to go for it.”

With Bell having played 21 games in the Premier League last term, the experienced defender, who has had spells with Blackburn Rovers and Fleetwood earlier in his career, is now determined to get back there after injury cut his top flight experience, adding: “That was amazing. It's something that everyone aspires to do in their career and thankfully I got there. Unfortunately it was cut short because of my injury, so I sort of feel like I have unfinished business there and the aim with Luton is to get back promoted.”