Sheffield Steeldogs: Ben Morgan's delight at earlier than expected return to action
BACK in September as his Sheffield Steeldogs team-mates were jumping into the opening games of the 2025-26 NIHL National season, veteran defenceman Ben Morgan didn’t think he would be joining them until at least the turn of the year.
But, last weekend saw him end the most frustrating spell on the sidelines in his long career, helping his team post a four-point weekend with road wins at Milton Keynes Lightning and Telford Tigers.
As expected after such a long time out, 38-year-old Morgan’s ice time was carefully managed by the Steeldogs’ bench across both nights while, for a short time at least on Sunday, friends and family following the game on social media thought he had enjoyed a dream ending to his first weekend back in action by scoring the winning goal in the 3-2 win at Telford.
It later became clear that forward Walker Summer was the man who found the net. Morgan bagged an assist on the game-winner in Shropshire although, typically, he was more bothered about the two points secured that kept the Steeldogs hot on the heels of leaders Swindon Wildcats and second-placed Leeds Knights.
“It was never my goal!” said Morgan. “My wife Claire messaged me to say ‘well done on scoring the game-winning goal’ and I’m getting messages from friends and other people saying ‘great to see that you’re back’ and ‘great goal’.
“I quickly had to put them right and tell them it was Walker’s but the main thing is that we won.”
The main thing for many Steeldogs’ fans was seeing one of their long-serving favourites come through his return to action with a clean bill of health - something Morgan admits came earlier than he initially expected.
“At the start of the season, I was very sceptical about returning before the end of the year,” added Morgan. “I always had in the back of my mind that it would be January at the earliest.
“There were nerves but purely in terms of the injury, not in my ability to just get on and contribute.
“It was just great being back out there. I only played eight minutes or so on Saturday - that was the plan, just to monitor my time and we didn’t want to push it too far.
“Then Sunday was almost double the amount of minutes, with two penalty kills in there as well, so that was really pleasing to get back to things that I can do well.”
This weekend, the Steeldogs visit Peterborough Phantoms before hosting Basingstoke Bison. A road win tonight will secure them a place in the NIHL National Cup semi-finals.