Auston Matthews to return once he’s “completely over this issue”

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews continues to be sidelined by an upper-body injury and missed a fifth straight game on Wednesday night. Last week, the Maple Leafs announced that Matthews would not play against the Boston Bruins on Nov. 5 due to an upper-body injury and went ont to confirm it’s an issue the star has been dealing with since the pre-season. Matthews was subsequently placed on injured reserve and his absence has garnered a lot of attention.

An exact timeline for his return remains unknown and Chris Johnston reported on last night’s Insider Trading on TSN that the plan is that Matthews will fully overcome the specific ailment before returning.

“We’re still not able at this point to pinpoint exactly which game he’ll be back for. It remains a day-by-day situation for Matthews, but there is some optimism here.

“Not only is his recovery progressing in a positive direction, but there is a feeling when he does return that he will be completely over this issue. This rest period will basically eliminate the issue entirely for Matthews. The schedule is also in favour of the Maple Leafs at this time - they’ve played five back-to-backs already this year, and they have three games in 13 days coming up, so that gives Matthews a nice window to ramp himself up from practice.”

Head coach Craig Berube spoke on Tuesday about his captain’s injury and refused to say he had suffered a setback in his recovery.

“[The injury] is just not getting to where it needs to get to. So, we’re just trying to manage it and just trying to make sure when he comes back, he’s good and 100 percent.”

Again on Friday: 

The upcoming schedule for Toronto is a huge benefit in Matthews’ recovery seeing that the Maple Leafs will play on Saturday against the visiting Edmonton Oilers and won’t play again until Wednesday when they host the Vegas Golden Knights. They then have another four-day break before hosting the Utah Hockey Club a week from Sunday.

For now, IR is where Matthews remains, with the hopes that a lighter schedule coming up will allow the superstar forward to rejoin his teammates in Toronto.