Detroit Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi hasn’t played since he was felled by an injury in on January 30 against the Florida Panthers.
And if head coach Jeff Blashill‘s latest update is any indication, he won’t be playing any time soon.
He’s not practiced once in the past seven weeks, and there’s no timetable for his return. Certainly not the news the team was hoping for regarding the player that had been their leading scorer with five goals in nine games at the time of his injury.
“Everything is on the table,” Blashill said. “We’ll have to take it day by day. Obviously, Tyler is a big piece for our team. He’s in the prime of his career right now and it’s really unfortunate. I feel bad for Tyler. I feel bad for our hockey team. We’re a better team with him.”
“He’s not skating right now,” Blashill continued. “That certainly doesn’t make him close at all. The first step is to skate over a longer period of time than what he’s done. He’s kind of gone in spurts of two or three days and then has kind of come off it. He’s a ways out.”
Will surgery be required to remedy his issue?
“We’ve got great medical people, they look at everything and make the decision on a day-to-day basis on what’s best for the player. They’ll continue to do that,” Blashill said.
However, should he be available in the near future, the team won’t rush him back into the lineup out of fear of the injury flaring up again.
“If there’s a significant risk to further injury by coming back we’ll never put a player back in the game,” Blashill said. “Then it comes down to can you play like you’re 100 percent?”
– – Quotes via Ansar Khan of MLive Link – –
