Lee Mitchell will miss out on a World Championships performance with Great Britain for the second time, after he was only named as a reserve for the squad.
Despite having a career year and impressing coach Rick Strachan enough to win coaches player of the year for the second time in two seasons, Mitchell has not been named in the squad after successfully coming back from a knee injury that prematurely ended his 07/08 campaign and ruled him out of the reckoning for last seasons World Championships.
The GB squad has now been named by head coach, Paul Thompson, who included EIHL winning netminder Jody Lehman for his first stint between the pipes for GB, after gaining British citizenship following five years in the country. The squad also included former Stingrays defenceman Dave Phillips, who will make his third successive appearance in a British shirt.
Great Britain will play Ukraine, Italy, Holland, Romania and hosts Poland between 11-17 April for the right to qualify for the world group which contains the likes of Canada, USA, Russia and Sweden.
Great Britain squad:
J Lehman (Sheffield), S Lyle (Belfast); S
Johnson (Belfast), D Meyers (Nottingham), B O'Connor (Coventry), D
Phillips (Belfast), M Richardson (Nottingham), M Thomas (Sheffield), G
Walton (Belfast), J Weaver (Coventry); G Chambers
(Basingstoke), D Clarke (Nottingham), R Cowley (Coventry), R Dowd
(Sheffield), J Hewitt (Sheffield), D Longstaff (Newcastle), M Myers
(Nottingham), G Owen (Briancon, France), J Phillips (Sheffield), C
Shields (Belfast), A Tait (Sheffield), T Watkins (Coventry).
Reserves - Netminders: S Murphy (Manchester - travelling reserve), N
Craze (Belfast); Defencemen: K Horne (Edinburgh), L Jamieson (Coventry);
Forwards: P Hill (Cardiff), M Levers (Nottingham), L Mitchell (Hull)
