Ice cool Ashley Jackson has ‘nothing to prove’ in bid for Olympic hockey glory

For a sport which oozes gender parity compared to others, there is an undoubted media profile mismatch when it comes to the Great Britain men’s side. The behemoth created by the GB women’s gold, and then last summer’s women’s World Cup, continues to leave the men firmly in the media shadows.

For if sports editors at England’s national newspapers treated hockey – with its high participation and history over the years – with the same love as those on the continent, where general sports are given due credit, then it is certain that the wider British public would be more in tune with the unerring skills of Ashley Jackson, regarded as Britain’s best player of his generation.