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Steve Downie on his creepy eye injury: ‘Made a mistake in fight, paid price for it’

When we last saw Philadelphia Flyers forward Steve Downie, he was taking a stiff left hand to the eye from Aaron Volpatti of the Washington Capitals, forcing him to call off their fight on Nov. 1. He was eventually taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons.

He returned to the Flyers on Thursday. And his eye looked like this:

GAAHAHAHAHAAHAAAAHAHHA!

“I put myself in a vulnerable position to get hit, and I got hit,” said Downie of this fight.

More from Downie, from Philly.com:

Downie, 26, asked Volpatti to stop the fight.

“When you blow your eye up like that and can’t see out of it,” it’s time to end it, he said. “...You get hit like that, there’s no point to keep going. You get hit again in a spot like that , you never know what could happen. Things could get worse.”

It was Downie’s first action after the Flyers had acquired him from Colorado for Max Talbot.

“My first game, you want to make an impression. Things didn’t go the way I wanted them to,” he said. “I’ve put it behind me. We have to focus on winning games, and I’m hoping to get back into the lineup and help the team.”

Downie said he had some X-Rays done, and should be back “soon” although he’d miss their game against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

“My vision’s good, my doctor did a great job checking me out,” he said.

So there you go. Now, perhaps a visit to the makeup counter for some cover-up …