Great Britain name men’s squad for World League semi-final

Great Britain Men’s Head Coach Bobby Crutchley has named a squad of 18 athletes ahead of the World League Semi-Final in Antwerp from 20 June- 5 July 2015.

Unfortunately there is no place for Scots Chris Grassick (injury) and Gordon McIntyre (not selected), both whom have recently featured for Great Britain.

Great Britain Head Coach Bobby Crutchley, said, “I’m pleased with the way the squad has come together. There were some difficult decisions as the group is a little stronger than it has been in the past.

“A few players picked up injuries at the wrong time which impacted their chances of being picked, that is always disappointing but the squad’s trained well and we’re in pretty good shape. Hopefully the matches against Australia will prepare us for the challenges ahead but we’re looking forward to it and looking forward to building on our previous performances.”

Great Britain take on Australia in a two-test warm up series before heading to Belgium for the World League Semi-Final.

At the tournament they will play European rivals and hosts Belgium in their opening pool game before facing Ireland, China and Malaysia to complete the group phase of the competition, with a place in the World League Final as well as Olympic Qualification up for grabs.

“You try to ignore it but you can’t because Olympic qualification is so important”, said Crutchley. “This tournament is massive for us because the Europeans will be such a difficult competition to win. You can’t really rely on your continental championships so we’ve faced up to the fact that there’ll be pressure especially in the quarter finals. We have to be prepared to perform well.

“To give yourself the best chance of doing that you have to build momentum throughout the tournament. We have to play well in our group games and then that quarter final is a crunch match. If we can win that we are almost certain to be in the Olympics. If we don’t, we have a big task to find a way through.”

For more information please visit the Great Britain Hockey website.

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