Torey Krug Admits Ankle Injury Began While Playing For Bruins

St. Louis Blues defenseman Torey Krug discussed the decision to have season-ending ankle surgery from an injury he suffered in the 2018 playoffs while playing for the Boston Bruins.

"I fractured my ankle six years ago now in the playoffs when I was with Boston. Over the last few years, it's starting to get worse and worse," Krug told reporters, per team-provided video. "I've been able to manage it for so long now. Last year was definitely tough trying to manage the pain level. This summer, I wasn't really able to do the things I needed to do to prepare for the NHL season, a lot of pain and stuff."

Krug recalled that the initial injury occurred in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"I got kinda full-speed shoved from behind going into the boards and lost my footing and fractured a few bones," Krug said.

Over the years since the injury, Krug had good days and bad days. Still, after more than six weeks of rehabilitation, the 33-year-old determined that having the surgery was the only way to address the "pre-arthritic changes" in his left ankle.

"You always try to hold out hope that you get healthy. Obviously, at some point, you do have to commit to fixing it," Krug said. "I have a date now for the surgery. I was just kind of holding out hope and trying to be as honest as possible with the Blues. ... Just trying to be upfront with everybody, but I was always holding out hope to try and play."

Krug continued: "Trying different things, for a while, riding the bike was something I could get away with and keep my conditioning level up. I wasn't able to do much dynamic stuff in the gym. Just tried to skate more obviously, give it some time to rest and maybe being off it for a while would help, and it did for sure, but almost immediately when you try and come back in the gym and put the skates on, it was one of those things where I realized it wasn't going to work. We had to make plans otherwise.

"It's something I was going to have to do regardless at some point in my life. Getting it taken care of as a 33-year-old professional athlete is a little bit different than ... I thought I would have to do it when I was 50 down the road and retired. I always knew it was one of those things that would have to be done. It's just disappointing and sad that it has to be now."

The surgery is planned to take place in "a couple of weeks," but Krug doesn't know how long it will take to fully recover and when he might be able to resume hockey activities.

"We don't really know that, to be honest," Krug said. "It's just something I've got to take care of and take it day by day, week by week, month by month and kind of go from there. Being out for the year, you can understand it's a pretty big surgery that I have to get. Looking forward, I can't forecast too much. Just got to stay in the moment. I'm going to feel better as a person. I'm going to be able to carry my kids up and down the stairs, which I'm able to do on some days but waking up, it's tough."