Great Britain coach Paul Thompson has named his 23-man squad for the World Championships in Slovenia in April.

Thompson has kept faith with the 21 men who helped Great Britain win 4-2 and 2-0 in their warm-up games against the Netherlands over the weekend.

They will be joined by Ashley Tait who is involved in the Italian league play-off final and Nathan Craze who will travel as emergency netminder cover.

Swindon Wildcats winger Aaron Nell is on standby.

Thompson chose a 31-man preliminary squad in March but Greg Owen, Kyle Horne, Mark Thomas and Marc Levers all miss out because of injury.

David Phillips and Jody Lehman are unavailable because of club commitments while Shane Johnson has retired.

David Longstaff and Tom Watkins were not named in the initial squad and again miss out because of injury.

The IIHF World Championship Division One Championship takes place in Ljubljana, Slovenia and runs from 17-23 April.

GB will play against Croatia, Korea, Hungary, Poland and the Slovenian hosts in the six-team group. Last year Thompson's men won a bronze medal in Poland.

GB squad

Netminders: Stevie Lyle (Cardiff Devils), Stephen Murphy (Belfast Giants) Emergency netminder Nathan Craze (Belfast Giants)

Defencemen: Russell Cowley (Coventry Blaze), Steve Lee (Nottingham Panthers), Danny Meyers (Nottingham Panthers), Ben O'Connor (Edinburgh Capitals), Kevin Phillips (Belfast Giants), Mark Richardson (Cardiff Devils), Jonathan Weaver (Coventry Blaze)

Forwards: Greg Chambers (Coventry Blaze), David Clarke (Nottingham Panthers), Robert Dowd (Sheffield Steelers), Mark Garside (Edinburgh Capitals), Jason Hewitt (Sheffield Steelers), Phil Hill (Cardiff Devils), Lee Mitchell (Hull Stingrays), Matthew Myers (Johnstown Chiefs, USA), Craig Peacock (Belfast Giants), Jonathan Phillips (Sheffield Steelers), Colin Shields (Belfast Giants), Ashley Tait (Ritten Renon, Italy), Matt Towe (Cardiff Devils)

Standby reserve: Aaron Nell (Swindon Wildcats)

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