Former B Nathan Horton

[SnoBrdr]

Former Bruin Nathan Horton has played only 36 games for the Blue Jackets since signing with Columbus as a free agent prior to the 2013-14 season.

He may never play another.

The Columbus Dispatch today details the constant pain that Horton endures on a daily basis, an agony caused by a degenerative back injury that may ultimately cost the forward his career.

“I can’t stand up like a normal person; I can’t bend over,” Horton told the Dispatch in his first public comments about his condition. “I can’t run. I can’t play with my kids. To get in and out of the car, I’m like a 75-year-old man … so slow and stiff. I can’t sleep at night. I try to lay down and my back seizes up and I can’t move, so sleeping is out. I’m like a zombie in the daytime.”

Horton had no prior history of back problems, Aaron Portzline writes. The Bruins certainly didn’t see this coming, offering Horton a contract extension, one he chose to pass on for the chance at a new beginning with Columbus. He signed a seven-year, $37.1 million contract with the Blue Jackets last July, and passed the physical with little issue aside from his injured shoulder.

Then, last fall, his back started bothering him. By January, it got worse. By the spring it got so bad that Horton was forced to adjust his skating style to compensate. According to the Dispatch, that led to a groin injury that required surgery. Three dozen games. Finished for the season.

A career in the balance.

“I’ve tried everything,” Horton said, mentioning the many epidurals, acupuncture, and chiropractors he’s been through. “I’ve seen so many doctors. So many people think they can fix me and they’re so optimistic, and then I get optimistic, but then … nothing changes. It’s so frustrating. I’ve heard from so many people with back issues, and it’s a different thing, the pain. It controls everything.”

Horton is only 29 years old, but hasn’t played a full season in the NHL since 2010-11 with the Bruins. He appeared in only 46 games the following season, 43 in 2012-13. But his postseason numbers in both of his Cup runs with the Bruins were significant factors (eight goals, nine assists in ’11, seven goals, 12 assists in ’13). The image of Horton pouring water from the Boston Garden onto the ice in Vancouver prior to Game 7 will remain a lasting image in Boston Bruins history.

Today though, Horton faces a life-altering decision. He can wait and hope the pain goes away, something that neither he nor the Blue Jackets feel confident will come to pass.

Or, he could have surgery, a procedure that the Dispatch says would likely be a three- or four-level spinal fusion with a titanium rod.

It would certainly end his career.

“For an elite-level athlete, it can severely restrict mobility, flexibility and shock absorption,” Dr. Safdar Khan, chief of the division of spine surgery at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, told the Dispatch. “We get our regular patients back to a point where they can swim and be active and live normal lives. But playing a competitive sport — especially one like hockey with the body checks and the hitting — that is not something that’s going to happen.”

So here is Horton, a new beginning from Boston, derailed from the start for reasons nobody can explain. He has no uniform in the Blue Jackets dressing room. No nameplate announcing his arrival anytime soon. He has no seeming future in Columbus, a destination he chose for reasons never really fully expressed upon leaving Boston.

“I’m a ghost,” he said. “But I’m not giving up. I still feel young other than my back. As long as I can hold off the surgery, I feel like there’s a chance. A chance for something. A miracle. Something.”

A life without hockey, or a life without pain?

How do you make the decision in your athletic prime?

[brownman]

He's got a decent fallback scenario for now.
Tammy will help him forget hockey.