Sheffield Steelers chief hoping injuries and illness clear ahead of hectic festive schedule

Six members of the Sheffield squad have been under the weather of late and Jonathan Phillips suffered an injury in the game at Glasgow Clan on Saturday. The skipper missed Sunday's win at Dundee Stars and it's not known whether he'll be fit to face the same opposition on Wednesday at the Arena.

"We're having a scan to see what the problem is," said Fox. "I don't know if he'll be available, but you never know with Jonno… if the scan comes back as nothing terrible there, he is the type who is going to play through stuff."

Brendan Connolly and Mason Mitchell were both given game-time last weekend and are fit to compete for a spot in a game Sheffield must win if they are nibble away at Guildford Flames' seven-point lead at the top of the EIHL table.

It is a big lead but Fox is pragmatic. "There is over half the season left so I have to believe that if we can take care of our business we will be in there at the end with a chance," he said.

"Our mindset has to be to care of our own business and we'll go on from there...and we get them a few more times too. We have got to be uber-focused on our game, and believe that they will drop points at some point and we'll be there. There is a lot of hockey left."

First in the fixture list is Dundee, who won in Sheffield on their first trip there on October 19. Their strength, says the Sheffield coach, is in the way they go hard after opponents: "They compete physically, they finished a lot of hits against us on Sunday and we have got to be ready to play as they have done us once in our barn."

Steelers will be hoping for even-handed refereeing of the midweek game. The club feels that in the last four games in Scotland, officiating was "pretty one-sided."

*The success of Sheffield's top line now means Brett Neumann and Scott Allen are joint top league goal scorers at the club, with 11. Dundee sniper Elijiah Barriga is the EIHL's sixth top points' scorer with 29 points from 25 games.