The Smith Recycling Milton Keynes Lightning have today announced that fan favourite forward Tom Carlon has returned to the club to provide injury cover in the short-term.
The 32-year-old has joined the club for two weeks while a number of players are sidelined with injuries or suspensions. He joins the likes of Lewis Christie and Dean Skinns who have also returned to the club as injury cover.
Carlon, a Telford native, is well-liked by the Lightning fanbase after he featured in three different seasons for the club previously before spending parts of the past two with the Milton Keynes Thunder.
The one-time EIHL champion played a key role in the Lightning's EPIHL cup and playoff double successes during the 2016/17 season after spending some time in the United Arab Emirates.
Head Coach Lewis Clifford had this to say: “With the short bench we have been running over the past few weekends, it is important to us that we bring in some cover to help take some of the workload from the remaining players."
"[Carlon] is a guy who is willing to help and to play for a few weeks rather than sitting in the stands or at home whilst he sees us struggle for numbers, he will come in a little rusty, but a week of practice will soon have that blown away."
He added: "[He] is a hugely experienced player who will most certainly do a job for us a for a few weeks and I am delighted that he’s agreed to help us out for a few weeks whilst some of our injured players continue to recover.”
Carlon himself commented: “I’m happy and excited to come back and hopefully help out in some way. I’ve been out of the game for a little while but I follow it closely and I do miss it sometimes so when Cliff asked if I’d be willing to come and help for a short term I was pleased to say yes."
He added: "If nothing else, at least I can be another body that can hopefully ease the workload on the rest of the players.”
