Auston Matthews returned to practice and nearly took part in a full session. The question is how much longer? Surgery has reportedly never been on the table for Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews, who's been dealing with a lingering upper-body injury since the beginning of November. The 27-year-old spoke for the first time on Wednesday since Dec. 20, the last time he's been in Toronto's lineup. Matthews took a cross-check from Buffalo Sabres defenseman Dennis Gilbert, which he says aggravated the injury a "little" bit. "I'd say that (cross-check) definitely didn't help the cause," the forward added. Matthews was later asked if he believed this injury could be put behind him as the season goes by. The forward, who has 11 goals and 12 assists for 23 points in 24 games this season, couldn't fully answer that question. "Yeah, I don't know. I hope so. That's obviously the goal," he said. "It's tricky with these things sometimes. It's a physical sport. It's a contact sport. Things happen out there sometimes that are out of your control. Juts try to manage it as best as I can, and that we can, and you just go from there." According to TSN's Chris Johnston, who appeared on TSN 1050's First Up with Aaron Korolnek and Carlo Colaiacovo [https://post.futurimedia.com/chumam/playlist/listen-53587.html], Matthews has never considered surgery to help fix the issue he's been dealing with. "I have been told it's something that's more about how he moves that's giving him some issues. Surgery has never been on the table or anything like that. I think it's more a comfort and mobility type of thing that's kept him out." Johnston added that the issue lingered longer than the Maple Leafs and Matthews would've hoped. "There was a real feeling that by taking that time then that he would be feeling great now. And it obviously isn't the case. And so, it's hard to know what you're going to get. At some point, I don't think he's too far off playing a game again," Johnston said. "But, I still think when that happens, we'll all be wondering, can he handle a stretch of games? It just feels like something that's going to be monitored to some degree, even when he is back in the lineup for the Leafs." [gallery ids="465,466,467,468,469"] The Maple Leafs don't have a scheduled practice for some time. They'll have a scheduled day off on Friday before back-to-back games this weekend. Toronto will then use Monday as a travel day as they head to Philadelphia before facing the Flyers on Tuesday. Their next team practice could come on Wednesday, one day before the team takes on the Carolina Hurricanes. Matthews travelled with the team to Long Island but has been ruled out for Thursday's game against the New York Islanders. Beyond that, his status for game action remains in the air. "I mean, it's been good progress throughout this week. I think it's always a good gauge from getting into practice and seeing how you feel in that and competitive aspect of drills and stuff like that," Matthews said on Wednesday. "So, a lot of positive signs. Like I said, just take it day by day, and, hopefully just keep progressing, and see where we're at maybe later this week." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjExNjM5NDEwNTc4NDM0MDI0/googlenews.svg] Stay updated with the most interesting Maple Leafs stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News [https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMK-q0gsw7sXpAw/sections/CAQqEAgAKgcICjCvqtILMO7F6QMwytvfCA?ceid=CA:en&oc=3] to never miss a story.
