Jamaica's Reggae Boyz are expected to shake off somewhere close to three month's inactivity when the team faces Africa's Super Eagles, Nigeria, on October 16.

According to matchings posted on the web site of world football's governing body, FIFA, the Nigerians will play the region's top team, Mexico, on October 14, before moving on to play Jamaica two days later. No venue has been named.

The Gleaner sought to confirm the date but efforts by phone to contact Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) officials proved futile.

In the most recent FIFA world ranking, the national team slipped to 96, equalling an all-time low held in December 1994. That is 73 spots below the 23rd-ranked African team.

In their last set of friendlies, which saw the Jamaican team tour Asia, the results were disheartening. They suffered 0-3 and 1-2 losses to Vietnam and Indonesia, respectively, teams ranked several places below them, and then a 1-8 thrashing at the hands of then 46th-ranked Iran.

Experimentation period

However, that squad of 22 local-based players excluded several of Jamaica's more experienced ballers and was announced to be an experimentation period by the JFF.

National technical director Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic had, at the time, stated his objective to build a competent local squad. With this period of experimentation announced to be over by the JFF, after returning from that tour, a few of the more notable names are expected to be in the line-up that faces Nigeria.

With the rest of CONCACAF fairly active for the last couple of months, the Boyz, who also missed out on a chance to take part in the Gold Cup which hosted the region's premier teams, will have their work cut out. The Reggae Boyz had been expected to return to active duty early this month but plans for a friendly international against Colombia fell through the floor.

In four previous matches against Nigeria, the Jamaicans have won one, drawn one and lost twice. The last time the teams met, in London, Nigeria came away with a 2-0 victory.