Yahoo Sports Maple Leafs' Brad Treliving Explains Why Auston Matthews Flew To Germany To Get His Undisclosed Upper-Body Issue Checked Out
How severe is Auston Matthews' upper-body injury? It turns out the Toronto Maple Leafs star player had to fly overseas to find out.
Brad Treliving says Auston Matthews went over to Germany to see a doctor he has seen in the past. Says it’s not alarming but once they get through that they hope he will return to skating.
Says he may play Sunday but also targeting FLA trip at the end of the month.
Won’t say…— David Alter (@dalter) November 19, 2024
Speaking to the media following Tuesday's practice, Maple Leafs GM Auston Matthews gave an update on the talented forward.
We haven't been trying to be cryptic with all this stuff. We've been calling him day-to day-because that's what he's been. We've looked at the schedule here and what we're trying to do is use this week to hopefully get this thing behind him. As part of that, he and our Doc Forman went over to Germany to see a doc that he's used in the past. More as a general checkup, but also to get some work done on his thing. It's not alarming. It was something we've been discussing, knowing that he's going to be getting this week, but we're hopeful that once we get through the week here, he'll be back up and skating and his return to play would be after that. So again, nothing new. There's been no setbacks. Everything's been actually going quite well. We're just trying to use the days that we've got here with less games being played to just try to get this behind us.
Matthews has been on the ice for at least a couple of sessions but alarm bells set off when the team said the player hadn't been on the ice for a while. Flying over to Germany would explain much of why he hasn't been able to skate.
Treliving said Matthews has been doing workouts off the ice during that period. The Leafs GM refused to share any other details about the nature of Matthews' injury and explained why.
"I'm protective of our players. I don't think we want to share as much as we can, but anything that may put the player at jeopardy, I just am not going to do that," Treliving said. "There's not surgery. There's not any speculation like that. Like I said, I think we're in a good spot here where we're getting beyond it, and we're going to try to use this time to get this behind us."
Treliving said Matthews might be able to return on Sunday when the club hosts the Utah Hockey Club but "would feel more comfortable" waiting until the team heads to Florida for a two-game road trip on Nov. 27.
Matthews has scored five goals and six assists in 13 games, a pace far below the superstar's previous eye-popping stats. The club wants to maximize his performance and is taking every precaution to make sure the player is healthy.
Treliving said Matthews is on board with the plan despite itching to get back into the lineup.
"He wants to play. But he also knows that we've got the long game in mind here, so he's doing well. He's been doing all his workouts and all that stuff. So he wants to play. I mean, that's what he does, right? But he'll be back, hopefully, like I said, soon, here in the not-too-distant future."
