Concussion forces Boston Bruins’ forward Nathan Horton out of team’s road trip – NHL News
Boston Bruins’ forward, Nathan Horton, has no other option than to watch his team’s action live on a screen while sitting in Boston as Bruins head to an 11-day road trip.
Horton has missed last six games for his side since suffering a concussion on January 21, 2012 and he is now confirmed to miss six more on the road trip of his side, which begins this week.
With the lapse of more than a couple of weeks the player is yet to recover and report his fitness to previous level, apparently leaving his team with no option than to leave him nursing his injury behind in Boston.
“When you get some injuries to [Horton] and you have extra forwards, you want to bring somebody along,” the head coach, Claude Julien said. “I think it serves both purposes to make players understand that you’re not pulling your weight around; that there
is somebody that can take your spot. But at the same time if there’s an injury on this road trip it’s a lot easier to bring the guy along if he’s been around on the team than just fly him in and expect him to jump in there and do the job.”
It is one of the rare setbacks for the team in addition to the player, and they will be definitely missing his absence.
The player was confirmed to have aggravated his injury when he tried to skate on his own, which has further delayed his recovery and comeback.
Some sections of media have cited few people around the player revealing his injury was a mild concussion. His team management apparently did not want take chances on him so decided not to count on him in their road trip games.
Bruins in the meantime have brought in Josh Hennessy as his replacement.
There is no confirmation if he is able to recover beyond the team’s road trip as according to his coach statement the team can be served well by the replacements.
Hennessy has played for the team before and performed rather well in absence of their regular forward and the coach, Julien, believes this will provide the team with extra options and depth at the position.
The availability of extra players to replace the injured ones does not leave the team much affected by the absence of regular players, and furthermore, they are unlikely to insert too much weight around their teams, the coach believes.
Horton is unlikely to stage a comeback this season if he continues to suffer the effects of concussions, which is a possibility in the longer run.
Some of the players who have suffered head injuries in the past have suffered pain and doziness as an aftermath, and in that case they needed rather longer rest to completely recover from it.
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