AARON FOX hopes to have a clearer picture on the full extent of Sheffield Steelers’ captain Robert Dowd’s injury situation some time next week.

Ahead of Friday night’s Motorpoint Elite League clash at Manchester Storm’s AO Arena, Fox is once again without his talismanic British forward, who has missed the last 10 league and Cup games and has not played since picking up an injury in the 2-1 overtime defeat at home to Fife Flyers on October 3.

As is the tendency in hockey, the exact nature of Dowd’s injury has been kept quiet as he strives to find a way back to action in what is his 17th full season with the club.

Since he was sidelined, the Steelers – who play host to Manchester on Saturday night at the Utilita Arena – have managed to secure their progression to the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup and are currently level on points with the Cardiff Devils at the top of the regular season league table.

Fox acknowledges the issue Dowd’s absence creates for him, but is pleased to have seen other British players step up during the enforced absence of their captain over the last four weeks or so.

“Dowdy’s a huge, huge miss, for sure,” said Fox. “You lose an import for two, three months, you can put him on IR and go find someone to come in and do a job.

“With a guy like Dowdy, there's just no replacement for that. I mean, thankfully we've got Whis (Brandon Whistle), who's playing unreal hockey right now and has arguably been one of our best players consistency-wise.

“And that's not just from a Brit perspective, that's overall in our group right now - he’s playing huge minutes and playing great.

MISSING IN ACTION: Sheffield Steelers' captain Robert Dowd has not played since the 2-1 overtime defeat at home to Fife Flyers on October 3. Picture: Hayley Roberts/Steelers Media

placeholder image — MISSING IN ACTION: Sheffield Steelers' captain Robert Dowd has not played since the 2-1 overtime defeat at home to Fife Flyers on October 3. Picture: Hayley Roberts/Steelers Media

“Ivan (Björkly Nordström) has also stepped up and done a really, really good job for us too.

“But there’s no doubt Dowdy's a huge miss. Hopefully we'll get a little bit of feedback in the coming days here to get a better understanding if it's something that he's going to be able to play through and figure that out, or if it's something where we’re going to have to shut him down long-term.”

As well as being without Dowd, Fox will have to make do without Björkly Nordström and back-up netminder Lucas Brine this weekend, with the pair currently away on international duty with Great Britain at the European Cup of Nations in Poland.

A young and inexperienced GB team fell 3-0 to Italy in their opening fixture on Thursday.