Overseas signing Mohammad Nabi will miss the Steelbacks opening weekend as he completes his mandatory quarantine having arrived in the UK.

“He’ll obviously be a big miss as he’s a quality player, but we’ve got great depth in our squad now so I’m not too worried.” Steelbacks Captain Josh Cobb said.

The ever-changing nature of UK Government travel restrictions and quarantine requirements, as well as limited availability of quarantine hotel rooms has meant getting the Afghanistan international into the country has proved difficult.

“I’d like to say thanks to the office staff here at the club and Richard Sydenham who’ve had a nightmare few weeks trying to get everything sorted.” Cobb said.

“I don’t envy them at all, I think they ended up on about plan W by the end.

It’s not a massive interruption though, hopefully we can get off to a strong start in the competition and Nabi can take us to that next level.”

Nabi will join South African Wayne Parnell as the Steelbacks second overseas player, and following his arrival, both are available for the duration of the group stages.

The Steelbacks 2021 Vitality Blast campaign gets underway on Friday night as they welcome the Worcestershire Rapids to The County Ground. The match will be televised live on Sky Sports with the following 6 matches to the streamed for free via the Club’s website.