Gillies turned down coaching role at the Steelers

Sheffield Steelers forward Nathan Gillies has quit the club to return to his native North America, BBC Radio Sheffield reports.

The 28-year-old has been out with an elbow injury since October and although he is now back to full fitness there is no space for him on the roster.

Gillies turned down the chance to stay at the club as an assistant coach and also rejected a move to Cardiff.

"I'm just chomping on the bit to get back playing," he said.

The winger found himself out of the team after he was replaced by Brad Cruikshank and since then the team has gone on a run that has seen them go top of the Elite League.

With the teams limited to the number of non-British players there is now no room for the Canadian on the roster.

There was interest from Cardiff but after a few days thinking things over Nathan approached me on Monday and said he had decided to fly home Mike O'Connor

That meant that Gillies only option in Sheffield was to wait for someone else to get injured for him to get a chance of playing again, but that is something he was not willing to do.

"I'm a hockey man, I need to play, just watching the guys practise day in and day out is driving me crazy."

Steelers general manager Mike O'Connor is disappointed that Gillies decided against staying in South Yorkshire as part of the club's coaching set-up.

"Matty (head coach David Matsos) spoke with him about staying on for the year and helping him with the coaching, we wanted him to stick around but just being around him you can sense he just wants to kit up and play again.

"There was interest from Cardiff but after a few days thinking things over Nathan approached me on Monday and said he had decided to fly home."

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