Mitch Marner suffered a reported high-ankle sprain against the Bruins in early March, but the player was not in a mood to give details.
Mitch Marner took part in his first full practice with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday, over three weeks removed from sustaining a reported high-ankle sprain in a game against the Boston Bruins.
Although Marner was in no mood to discuss how he got hurt.
"I've been watching every game. You guys have been talking about it every single game. I think you guys can say whatever you want," Marner said following practice. "It's behind me now. Stuff happened and you just go on from it."
TSN's Darren Dreger reported on March 14 that Marner sustained a high-ankle sprain during Toronto's 4-1 loss to the Bruins on March 7. Marner's response to how he got hurt begged the obvious follow-up.
Was it not a high-ankle injury?
"I don't know. Whatever you guys want to say it is. It's behind me now. I'm excited to be back out here with the guys and compete with them again."
Marner has been impressed with the way his club has played without the talented forward having gone 5-3-1 in the nine games that the player has missed as of late. As far as when he'll return?
He's been ruled out for Saturday's game against the Buffalo Sabres and Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe wants Marner to have another day practice before electing to put him in.
"You want to build up the workload and get him used to playing in competitive situations," Keefe said. We will just continue to grow his workload through practices."
Marner has 25 goals and 51 assists in 62 games this season. The club has struggled on the power play going 3-for-28 without him in the lineup. The player is on a long list of injured players including Morgan Rielly, who has "turned the corner" from an upper-body injury but is unable to return on Sunday. Meanwhile, Timothy Liljegren (upper-body) and Joel Edmundson (undisclosed) have been given a "week-to-week" timeline for their injuries.
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