Vermeulen went public with his grievances, accusing the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) of a lack of support in the build-up to the tournament, which has opened debate in the country and shifted focus away from their achievement of reaching the global showpiece tournament for a fifth consecutive time.
The 50-man squad currently in camp in Windhoek on Friday issued a statement through the NRU in which they have called for calm.
"Talk about rugby in Namibia is currently dominated by internal controversy amongst coaching and administrative staff. The players are not involved and not siding with the opinions of any of the individuals," the statement said.
"We are amongst the World Cup qualifiers with the least resources, including direct income and sponsorships. Most of our squad are working men with responsibilities for jobs and families.
"We will not lose perspective in the heat of all the drama we now read about and that is playing out at a different level, in committee rooms.
"Local players train daily in the early morning, in the cold hours before work, and late into the evenings after work. They commit weekend after weekend and often have to take weeks of unpaid leave to travel.
"There are hard sacrifices at work and on a personal level for every player in the squad."
Having laid out their challenging circumstances, the players have called for public backing.
"We believe that's why now, like always, Namibian rugby supporters will back our players, regardless of their sentiments on the issues in this controversy.
"While at administrative level, we are unmistakably going through a tough time, let's remember the final countdown to the World Cup is on now and effectively we have hardly more than two months left to prepare."
Namibia play Russia in Windhoek in two test matches on July 11 and 18.
They have been drawn in Group C at the World Cup, which runs from Sept. 18-Oct. 31, along with New Zealand, Argentina, Georgia and Tonga.
(Reporting by Nick Said. Editing by Patrick Johnston)
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