“Not easy to replace” – Flyers No. 1 center Sean Couturier out 3-4 months following back surgery
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Sean Couturier
Philadelphia Flyers forward Sean Couturier will be taking a break from skates for the next 3-4 months after undergoing back surgery on Thursday. The 29-year-old underwent back surgery twice this year, the first being on February 11. The Flyers coach is hoping to see Sean on the ice once more this NHL season.
After having his first back surgery, symptoms and irritations have been there for a while. He was cleared of medical interference in September, but he couldn’t fully participate in training camp. Sean skated periodically on his own but held back from team practices.
GM Chuck Fletcher stated after coach John Tortorella, “As John has spoken to a lot, we’ve integrated a lot of young players and some new players and we have new systems, new coaches. So I think right now we’ll probably let things play out, see how we do.”
“It’s not easy to replace Sean Couturier, and again the hope is that in 3-4 months he’ll be back. So we’ll just have to take it game by game and week by week, all the old cliches, but we’ll see how it plays out.” The 2019-20 Selke Trophy winner has participated in 721 games attaining 460 points with 180 goals and 280 assists.
Flyers roster to change due to absence of Sean Couturier
He won the best defensive award in NHL and has been the No. 1 center for the team. Replacing him with new players will surely prove to be difficult. Sean is currently in the first year of his $62 million contract signed on August 2021, with an annual average value of $7.75 million annual average value.
Since his absence, the roster is sure to move, while a few more players remain on IL due to medical attention. Fletcher stated, “With Sean, it’s been a long road, even going back to June and July. … He felt tightness, he felt some nerve irritation from time to time.”
“He was told to continue to train, and he felt better as the summer went along, and then prior to [training] camp symptoms seemed to get a little bit worse, so we pulled him back, and at that point we tried to treat it nonsurgically.”
“He got an epidural that brought him some relief for a couple of weeks. He felt great, really the best he had felt in a long time, and then that seemed to wear off and the symptoms came back again.”
“So it’s sort of been four or five months of this persistent nerve irritation and symptoms. After speaking with a few different specialists, it was decided to go back in and to repair it.”
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Kaushani Chatterjee
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