Capitals defenseman Mike Green will undergo surgery on Tuesday to repair a sports hernia, according to general manager George McPhee.
Green, who has played in just 10 games this season, had two components to his groin problems: A tendon issue, which seems to have healed with rest, and also a tear in the muscle wall of his lower abdomen. That hole, essentially a sports hernia, finally needed to be repaired when Green didn’t show enough improvement. Doctors will put a mesh lining into the muscle wall to strengthen it.
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Green is out 4-to-6 weeks. Team doctors believe the surgery will correct the problem and this shouldn’t linger afterwards,” McPhee said. Green’s surgery was to be performed by Dr. Michael Brunt, a St. Louis-based orthopedic surgeon who has worked on former Caps like Jamie Heward and Chris Clark. Even assistant coach Dean Evason underwent the procedure years ago.
Why surgery now? McPhee said doctors took the conservative approach and tried to avoid it, if possible.
“Sometimes when you take the conservative approach it takes a while and you don’t really know when the player’s going to be ready,” McPhee said. “With this procedure we know when the player should be ready.”
Green has missed 33 of the team’s last 36 games, six of those with an ankle injury and 27 thanks to the groin issues. Green returned to play in a full game against Calgary on Jan. 3, but made it only into the second period of the next game at San Jose. He is already on long-term injured reserve as of Jan. 12. Green has now played in just 20 of Washington’s 80 games since Feb. 8, 2011. That total also includes last year’s nine postseason contests. During that stretch, Green has left five different games early with an injury of some sort. In two others he was hurt, finished the game, but was too injured to play in Washington’s next game.
“I don’t know that he re-tore it or anything like that,” McPhee said of Green’s injury. “It’s just never really healed to the point where he can play with it effectively.”
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