Börje Salming refused to stop playing hockey.
He went against the doctors’ appeal – and continued for another twelve years.
Few Swedish athletes in history have suffered as many bangs and injuries as Börje Salming. His total injury list had given anyone phantom pain, but there was never any major whining about him.
Chronic sinusitis
He dominated the NHL year after year, winning the love of Toronto fans with his rock-hard and sacrificial game, spiced with a tremendous amount of technique, finesse and skating. The bangs on the ice were making Börje Salming blind, and it was not uncommon for him to walk around with a broken leg in his body. But it was a thing that actually made him almost end his career – early, too.
When a Swedish newspaper visited Börje Salming in Toronto in 1981, he told about how bad it was with his sinuses. He had problems with the sinuses already as a teenager, and it developed into chronic sinusitis. He tested just about everything – all the drugs, all the possible surgeries – but nothing helped. Salming told the Swedish newspaper that he was resigned.
– It only gets worse and worse, he sighed.
Defied the doctors
The doctors agreed: To get rid of the problems, Salming needed to either rest, or stop playing ice hockey altogether. It was the air in the halls that made it, but rest was never even to think about – despite the doctors’ appeal. For long periods, Salming played with penicillin, and once it was even so bad that he was forced to lie down with a drip for a week. But Salming still played most of all in Toronto, every game. And three days after he finished the drop, he played match again. The newspaper writes that Salming operated on his neck on Monday. On Wednesday, he played the match again.
When the newspaper talks to Börje, the vocal cords have been affected by sinusitis, and he can only whisper throughout the interview. Shortly afterwards, he set off on a ten-day away road trip. But Salming did not give up. He has always been grateful for hockey, and he felt he could not stop. And he did not either. After the interview, where he was so open about his problems, his career continued. It was not until 1990 – nine years later – that he left the NHL, and then continued his career for another three years at home in Sweden. Talk about rubbing salt in my wounds – d’oh!
READ MORE: When Börje Salming covered the shot with his face, he was forced to sew – and did the unimaginable right in his first change