John Tavares plan to play for Canada at the World Championships has hit a snag, as the Toronto Maple Leafs center suffered an oblique injury in preparation for the start of the tournament this weekend.
According to a tweet from Leafs PR, the 28-year-old is returning to Toronto for further medical evaluation by the club’s medical staff.
This is the second time that Tavares has been injured while playing for Canada in international competition. At the 2014 Olympics, he suffered a torn MCL and meniscus injury during a quarterfinal game against Latvia and was lost for the rest of the tournament and regular season.
Tavares led the Leafs in goals (47) and finished second to Mitch Marner in scoring (88 points) in his first season after signing a seven-year, $77 Million contract last July.
The stretch of bad news continued on Thursday, as the Leafs announced that defenseman Travis Dermott would be undergoing shoulder surgery on Friday and would be out a minimum of six months.
The 22-year-old defenseman suffered a shoulder injury in late February in a game against the Edmonton Oilers, when Brad Malone hit the blueliner awkwardly into the boards. Dermott returned for the final week of the regular season and played all seven playoff games against Boston.
It is likely that the surgery is to repair the damage from that injury and with a minimum six month recovery time, that will make Dermott unavailable for all of training camp and into the regular season.
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