Jason Spezza out with herniated disc

[Zulu29]

Too bad for the Sens, oddly enough I had to have surgery for a herniated disc three weeks ago, not fun.

[Captain_Obvious]

That's got to put him out most of the season if not all of it?

[GreatWhiteEbola]

That's no laughing matter...

[Zulu29]

Originally Posted by Captain_Obvious

That's got to put him out most of the season if not all of it?

Well obviously I'm no NHL'er but for a reference, my neurosurgeon said 6 weeks of no bending, lifting or twisting and no carrying anything over 10 lbs. After the 6 weeks I can start physiotherapy and I'll have to do that for a few months before I'm able to start playing sports or going to the gym again. The annulus (fibrous ring that keeps the disc contained) can take anywhere from 6 weeks to a year to scar over.

So in short, it's feasible that he'll be ready for the end of the season since he's a pro athlete, but I doubt very much he'll be anywhere close to 100%.

[nickerjones]

Zulu... i feel ya bud...

there is a study somewhere that showed the avg time for Pro/olympic athletes to return to their sport after a lumbar micro-discectomy. I think it was an 10 yr old study.. 2003 or so There were 60 athletes ,7 of which were hockey players. All 7 returned to the previous level of the sport. The average time from surgery to return was 6.3 months.


edit: http://www.watkinsspine.com/pubs/7.A...Discectomy.pdf

[Hatter]

That sucks for Jason. I like his game and hope he doesn't miss too much time.

[Machiavelli]

Always liked Spezza; great skill and seems like a fun-loving guy.

Hope his recovery is swift.

[nickerjones]

This is the 2nd time he has had back surgery right? I wonder if its the same disc...

[Hockey_Ninja]

The Sens have one hell of a good team so i'm sure they'll be fine. I bet Karlsson will be scoring at an 80+ point pace for the whole shortened season.