Boost for Leeds Chiefs with Sam Gospel set to return from injury

The 25-year-old missed last Sunday’s 8-4 defeat at home to Basingstoke Bison having bravely played through the pain in the previous night’s defeat to Bracknell Bees, despite being in obvious discomfort throughout.

Gospel was scheduled to see physios back down in Nottingham this week to try and get to the bottom of the upper-body injury and was initially expected to be sidelined for this weekend’s games against Milton Keynes Lightning and NIHL National leadersTelford Tigers.

But Chiefs’ player-coach Sam Zajac said he was now hopeful that his No 1 netminder – an obvious contender for player of the season – would be able to return to the ice in time for tomorrow’s trip to Buckinghamshire to take on Lewis Clifford’s team.

“It seems that it is not as bad as we first thought with Gossy,” said Zajac. “He’s been on the ice on Wednesday and he’s taking it easy and we were making sure that we were cautious with him, but we’re hoping he’ll be available this weekend.

“It was looking like he would be out for a couple of weeks, but his problem isn’t as bad as we first thought. He’s a very hard player to replace, so if we do manage to have him back it is going to be a massive boost.”

With No 2 netminder Miles Finney having recently departed for Sutton Sting in the division below, Gospel had little option but to play through the pain barrier during the Bracknell defeat as there was no recognised back-up.

But with no chance of being fit to play the following night against Bison, 17-year-old Harrison Walker – signed last summer on a two-way with Blackburn Hawks to be the Chiefs’ third-choice goalie – was handed his debut.

Walker is struggling to be available for the Chiefs this weekend due to his commitments both days with the Hawks, although 18-year-old Jake Lowndes from Widnes is available to provide back-up duty against Telford.