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Phoenix stars on international duty

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Three members of the Manchester Phoenix squad have today flown into Europe to honour national team call-ups for International tournaments.

Player coach Tony Hand and forward Adam Walker left Manchester in the early hours of Monday morning to link up with the Great Britain squad en route to France, while an early afternoon flight to Budapest took defenceman Omar Ennaffati to join the Hungarian squad training camp ahead of heading to Holland on Thursday.

Hand, who retired from international play following last seasons World Championships, is joining the GB squad in an assistant coaching capacity alongside Rob Wilson of the Newcastle Vipers under head coach Paul Thompson of the Coventry Blaze. The GB squad are to compete in the Mont Blanc Euro-Challenge tournament with games against Lithuania, Norway and their French hosts. And Ennaffatti's involvement on the blueline for Team Hungary will see him ice in games next Friday, Saturday and Sunday in a tournament involving Croatia, Ukraine and the Dutch hosts.

A Phoenix spokesperson commented, "it's always an honour for players to be selected for their national programme and we're naturally pleased for both Adam and Omar that they've been so recognised. Adam will feature in at least one of the GB games as Coach Thompson has already stated his intention that all of the 33-man strong squad will see some ice time through the course of the three games, while Tony will revel in the coaching role. Both will return to Manchester on Friday in time for the long bus ride to Basingstoke next Saturday."

Phoenix will though be without the services next weekend of Omar Ennaffatti and the spokesperson added, "That is a little disappointing, but Team Hungary are competing in an IIHF sanctioned tournament, and as such, we could not refuse to release him to play. With important games against the Bison and Edinburgh coming up, Carl Graham will see more ice time and we know he'll relish the opportunity and look forward to the challenge."

Player Profiles

• Profile for Adam Walker
• Profile for Omar Ennaffati

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