Cyborg Shea Weber back from injury weeks earlier than expected

Shea Weber is a damn freak.

After suffering what the Montreal Canadiens called a sprained left ankle during a shootout victory over the New Jersey Devils two weeks ago, the prognosis for the nails-tough blueliner wasn’t a very positive one, with the team reporting that Weber would miss a minimum of four-to-six weeks.

Welp, exactly two weeks later, Weber apparently threw a couple bananas and some Advil down the hatch and is miraculously expected to be back in the Habs’ lineup for their clash against the Red Wings on Tuesday.

Things looked extremely bleak for the Habs as of last Wednesday, when former Sportsnet hockey analyst Nick Kypreos tweeted:

“Shea Weber injury has his season likely over and his future in question. Told injury is related to foot that was surgically repaired in 2018. While waiting for swelling to alleviate and further confirmation, surgery seemed unavoidable going into this week. Later that day, the Canadiens reported Weber had suffered a sprained left ankle and would be sidelined four to six weeks.”

Kypreos wasn’t the only well-known analyst to fear the worst for Weber after he was initially sidelined.

It’s obviously pretty absurd how quickly Weber is returning from this injury — one that carried with it a bleak prognosis at best. Most would’ve been stunned to see Weber return at all this year, let alone just two weeks after he apparently suffered the injury.

Weber is notoriously a beast in the gym with a savage work ethic and not-mortal pain tolerance, and is still averaging over 24 minutes per night 15 years into his NHL career. He stayed relatively healthy for a large portion of his career despite the heavy workload, never missing more than four games in a season between 2008-2017.

However, the ailments he avoided started catching up to Weber over the last couple years. Weber’s left foot was operated on in March 2018 and he was forced to sit the last 56 games of the 2017-18 campaign and the first 24 games last season after undergoing surgery to repair a meniscal tear in his right knee.

Unsurprisingly, Weber tries to tune out all that outside noise when it comes to his own recovery limitations.

“I don’t listen … I shouldn’t say I don’t listen to timelines. But my goal is to get back as soon as possible, and when I feel like I can help the team then I’ll come back. At this point I feel good enough to help out and just keep going that way.”

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