Sheffield Steelers wait on two players' availability for Nottingham Panthers' game

There are question marks over forwards Kameron Kielly and Brandon Whistle, but coach Aaron Fox isn’t ruling either out.

Canadian Kielly is still overseas, waiting for his visa application to come through.

Monday was Labour Day in north America, which may have slowed down the process.

Steelers hope he will be on a plane by the end of the week.

Asked if he would play him if he arrived on Friday, the coach replied: “I am not sure, we’ll have to assess how things go.

“He is also coming off that injury he had, he is not someone I would just throw to the wolves without a couple of days of skates.”

Whistle was hurt playing for Great Britain in a challenge match in April and has been managing his recovery ever since.

“He is currently in a no-contact jersey but he is doing OK,” said Fox.

“It is questionable whether he will play this weekend but we are hopeful. He is not that far away.”

Fox was happy with the training session during the club’s formal induction day on Monday.

“A lot of guys are looking good, actually, it is tough to single guys out, I have been pretty impressed with most of them.”

It is certainly a whirlwind week for a squad given just a week to prepare for Saturday’s game with Nottingham Panthers (7pm.)

All eyes will be on the new boys, when an expected 8,000 people will fill the Arena stands.

Sheffield may have had less time to prepare than some of their EIHL rivals.

But you won’t hear new signing Kevin Tansey complain.

On social media, he has already issued a ‘Let’s go get ’em’ clarion call, ahead of the Panthers’ game.

And the fact he didn’t have to leave his summer home until a few days ago “was a huge selling point” when it came to accepting a contract in Sheffield.

“I am usually gone the last week of July” said Tansey.

“When I was in Kosice (Slovakia) we had 13 pre-season games – insane! That’s a quarter of the season!

“I was burned out by the time the season started.”

Included in Kosice’s practices were battle drills where you were expected to make meaningful contact with team-mates.

He said there was the dilemma of trying to get his compete level high without injuring team-mates.

“I am definitely happy to have a shortened camp.”

Much-travelled Tansley, aged 30, may be a Canadian import about to operate on foreign ice, but he knows the value of homegrown players.

“That is usually how you win these leagues,” he told the 4,000 and Counting podcast.

“No matter what the imports are you bring in, it is the homegrown guys that are the depth guys that really bring it over over the finish line everywhere I have been, basically.”

The team with the best indigenous corps “usually helps a ton” when it comes to winning trophies, said the defenceman.

This year, there are fewer than normal Brits on the Steelers’ team, in fact there are only four skaters who were born in the UK – Sam Jones, Robert Dowd, Brandon Whistle and Cole Shudra.