Nicklas Bäckström has had hip surgery.
Now it is feared that he made his last match – and there are many examples of why.
“Few succeed,” writes the site Russian Machine Never Breaks.
Nicklas Bäckström is one of our biggest NHL stars, but the last few seasons have been tough. Bäckis has still produced absolute world-class points, but he has struggled with a hip injury that refuses to go down.
New horror list
Bäckström has missed many matches and felt that he can almost never play fully, and the hip injury eventually forced him to have an operation. At a clinic in Belgium, Bäckström has now undergone a major operation, and Capitals has so far only said that it was “successful”, but that the rehab will be long.
And there is real concern that Bäckström may actually have played his very last game in the NHL. The site Russian Machine Never Breaks – an initiated Washington blog – now highlights several examples of other famous athletes who performed the same operation, and it is not directly cheerful reading.
“That is also why so many people are wondering if he has made his last match,” the site writes.
“The saddest thing is…”
The site writes, among other things, about the former NHL player Ed Jovanovski, who was forced to rehab for more than a year. He then returned, only to play 37 games – before ending his career.
“The saddest thing is that it is the most successful outcome of everyone who has had the operation,” the site writes.
But there are more examples of NHL players who have had the operation. Ryan Kesler made it in 2019, and never played again. Mike Sillinger did it too – but only to avoid pain when he stopped, and there were no more matches.
Finally, RMNB states:
“If the Swede is to return, a long and painful process will be required.”
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