London Free Press article
August 3, 2002
by Kathy Rumleski

Steve Yzerman hopes to be back playing hockey in three to six months but he also knows “not to expect the world.”

Most important to the longest-serving captain in NHL history is being able to play with his kids.

World-renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Peter Fowler of London performed a 2*-hour osteotomy yesterday on the Detroit Red Wings’ star centre.

Yzerman had the surgery, which corrects the bone alignment of the knee, transferring pressure to the proper area, at the University campus of the London Health Sciences Centre. He is expected to remain there only a day.

Yzerman told Fowler he’d like to play hockey for a couple of more years, but whether he does or not remains to be seen.

“It’s a possibility that he could return with this, but . . . ,” Fowler said.

“More important to him is the future. He wants to be able to play with his kids and that stuff. That’s what he’s looking at. He knows not to expect the world. We discussed things for hours.”

Fowler performed 55 osteotomies last year, but said they are usually done on older people.

“We do them for arthritis and we do them for various instability problems. He has a combination of the two.”

Fowler said in Yzerman’s case, the outer part of the knee had deteriorated.

“What you’re trying to do is to shift the weight off a not-so-good area onto a better area (inside),” Fowler explained.

“The surgery went well,” added the head of the Fowler-Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic at Western.

He anticipates Yzerman will need between three and six months of rehabilitation.

“It’s going to be a while, that’s for sure,” Fowler said.

A Wings’ statement yesterday said Yzerman might not return to the lineup until February, but the team is hoping he’ll be back in late December.

While Yzerman appeared calm before the surgery, Fowler laughed and said he was probably “faking it.”

Yzerman’s wife is with him in London.

“They’ll go home when they feel comfortable, probably (today) or (tomorrow),” the surgeon said.

Fowler expects to have a couple of follow-up visits with Yzerman.

Fowler, who also has performed surgery on ice dancer Shae-Lynn Bourne and Tony Fernandez, a former Toronto Blue Jays shortstop, said Yzerman was in intense pain in the latter part of the season, especially during the NHL playoffs in which his team played into June to win the Stanley Cup.

“He was killing himself. He couldn’t practise. He just played the games and just got through them. He’s a good guy, I’ll tell you; he’s a game person.”

Along with recent consultations in London, Yzerman also went to Birmingham, Ala., New York and Pittsburgh.

“We got our heads together and decided what we thought was the best for him,” Fowler said.

Despite his ailing knee, Yzerman also helped Canada win the men’s hockey gold at the Salt Lake City Olympics in February.