Near the end of the first period of Game 5 of the Rangers’ first round series against the Penguins in April, forward Mats Zuccarello took a slap shot off the side of his head that left him visibly shaken as he made his way back to the bench. He did not return to the game, and had been inactive for every game since.
On Monday, it was revealed that the injury he sustained was a lot more serious than previously known.
“I don’t know what you guys know, but there was a small fracture in my head,” Zuccarello said. “I lost my (ability to) talk and some feeling in my arm and stuff. I was in the hospital for three days. I couldn’t talk for a while. I had a contusion, some blood in my brain…I’m getting much better. I couldn’t say a word for four days.”
Zuccarello added that he did resume skating while his team was playing the Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final, but it was unlikely he would have been active for the Stanley Cup if the Rangers had advanced.
[via New York Daily News]
