Music: {allcanada} MICHALEK 'SHOULD BE GOOD IN A FEW WEEKS'

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

{allcanada} MICHALEK 'SHOULD BE GOOD IN A FEW WEEKS'

The Ottawa Citizen points out that if the Senators were, as scheduled, in the middle of training camp right now, Milan Michalek would likely have been trying to play through the injury, no doubt slowing him down.

He had surgery to repair a torn abdominal muscle on Sept. 11.

"If it happened during the season, we would probably do the surgery after the season," said Michalek. "But I saw with the lockout coming, I might as well do it now and get it over with, so it doesn't bother me during the season."

Michalek, 27, scored a career high 35 goals, and added 25 assists, last season. Other than Daniel Alfredsson, he's the only proven high scoring winger the Senators have. Having him healthy will be pivotal for the Senators if and when there is a season.

The injury had been bothering Michalek during the summer, but he originally thought it was a groin issue. After returning to North America from his native Czech Republic, he had an MRI and discovered that the problem was a torn muscle in his abdomen.

The recovery has gone well, so far. Michalek didn't take part in an end-of-workout scrimmge on Monday and left the ice before the players began 1-on-1 battle drills on Tuesday.

"I'm just skating pretty easy, not doing anything crazy and it should be good in a few weeks," he said.

Should the lockout not yet be over when he's fully recovered, the door is open for him to return to his old Czech team, Budejovice. Jaromir Jagr and Tomas Plekanec are already back playing for Kladno, drawing large crowds in the process.

"It's great for the fans at home, they get to see the best (Czech) players back," he said.