Report: Serious long-term concern from Auston Matthews on his injury

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews joined his team for an informal New Year’s Day practice today, but his timeline for returning to the lineup is unclear.

In fact, it’s unclear if Matthews will even be able to re-join the lineup at 100% the rest of this season.

“I don’t know. I hope so,” Matthews said when asked if he can push past his injury this season. “That’s obviously the goal. It’s tricky with these things sometimes. It’s a physical sport, it’s a contact sport, so things happen out there sometimes that are out of your control. So I’m just trying to manage it as best as I can, and we can, and you just go from there.”

Matthews has already been ruled out of tomorrow’s game against the New York Islanders, the 15th game this season that he’ll watch from the press box.

“When you’re injured as a player and (people) are always asking you ‘how you feeling?’ it gets annoying. When he’s available, he’ll let us know,” head coach Craig Berube said. “Right now, the situation we’re in with him, I’m preparing the team to play without him. We’ll know when he’s ready and we’ll make adjustments.”

So… is he getting close? What exactly is keeping him off the ice?

“I think it’s always a good gauge, getting into practice and seeing how you feel in that, in a competitive aspect of drills and stuff like that,” Matthews said after today’s practice. “A lot of positive signs. Just take it day by day and hopefully just keep progressing and see where we’re at maybe later this week.”

His coach certainly seems to think that things are heading in the right direction, even if Matthews is a little more reserved.

“Seeing him out here in practice and competing in a full practice is progress,” Berube said. “He’s going in the right direction, which is great. I know there’s no timeline, and we’re all looking for one.”