LUZERN, Switzerland — The Switzerland Football Association has come to the aid of the Jamaica Football Federation by providing a physiotherapist to assist team doctor Derrick McDowell and physical trainer Andre Waugh to keep the Reggae Boyz healthy ahead of tomorrow’s friendly international against the home team.

Physiotherapist Erik has been loaned to the Jamaican squad for the duration of the team’s stay in Switzerland, at the expense of the Switzerland FA.

According to head coach Winfried Schaefer, prior to leaving New York following the team’s 1-2 loss to Serbia on Monday at the Red Bull Arena, he had contacted a colleague of his in Germany to assist in acquiring the services of a physiotherapist, as a number of the Reggae Boyz went down with cramps during the latter stages of Monday’s game.

He explained that the frequent cramping was the result of players not being fully fit, especially after most had just recently concluded their season, and he wanted them to be as healthy as possible, with three testing games ahead over the next 10 days.

Erik was quickly in action as he joined the squad in a training session at the Allmend Luzern training facility to lend his expertise. Meanwhile, the Boyz landed in cool (13 degrees Celsius) Zurich just before eight o’clock yesterday morning and hit the ground running, as following their near one-hour bus ride to Luzern, they were on the training pitch less than five hours later, despite a seven-and-a-half hour flight from John F Kennedy Airport in New York.

The Boyz are slated to face the hosts, who are ranked eighth on the FIFA Coca-Cola list tomorrow at 8:30 pm (1:30 pm Jamaica time) at the Swissporarena, Luzern, in what is expected to be the home team’s second-to-last game before departing for the Brazil FIFA 2014 World Cup Finals.

The training session lasted over an hour and though devoid of seven players, there was enough energy and commitment to please Schaefer and the technical staff, especially the medical team, which encouraged the players to hydrate themselves and intake sufficient magnesium to mitigate cramping.

Shortly after the team returned from training, the England-based group of Wes Morgan, Adrian Mariappa, Lloyd Doyley, Christopher Humphrey, Joel Grant and Simon Dawkins joined the group at the hotel.

Keithy Simpson, who plays in Finland, arrived moments later to bring the number of players up to 21.

Darren Mattocks and Dwayne Miller, who were members of the team that played against Serbia, were booked to travel separately from the rest of the group from New York, and arrived early enough to make the training session, as did Demar Phillips, who flew in from Scandinavia for this game only.

The team will hold another training session at 6:30 pm (11:30 am Jamaica time) today at the game venue, ahead of a press conference involving team captain Rodolph Austin and Schaefer at the end of the training session.

Following tomorrow’s game, the Boyz will fly to London on Saturday ahead of their game against Egypt next Wednesday, after which they will close out the tour with a game against 1998 World Cup champions France in Lille on June 8.

Squad: Andre Blake, Dwayne Miller, Jacomeno Barrett, Upstan Edwards, Lloyd Doyley, Wes Morgan, Adrian Mariappa, Christopher Humphrey, Joel Grant, Simon Dawkins, Rodolph Austin, John-Ross Edwards, Kemar Lawrence, Demar Phillips, Michael Seaton, Nicholy Finlayson, Romario Campbell, Nicholas Beckett, Hughan Gray, Darren Mattocks, and Keithy Simpson.