While his native country of Sweden goes for the gold medal, Detroit Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg will be recovering from surgery on his back after he was forced to back out of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
The Red Wings are hoping that Zetterberg will be back sometime this season after undergoing the surgery on Friday, NHL.com reports. Sweden will take on the winner of the United States and Canada game on Sunday in search of its first gold medal since 2006.
A two-month recovery is plausible for Zetterberg and the team is hopeful he'd be back for Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs if the team makes it, but general manager Ryan Martin didn't rule out a Zetterberg for a return prior to the postseason.
"It went very, very well," Martin told MLive.com. "They removed part of a disk that was rubbing on a nerve. It was what they thought it was. The recovery process looks very, very positive. ... It's a really good sign. They feel confident this procedure will help in the long term."
Zetterberg sat out 11 games in December and two games in January due to a back issue and he's dealt with back problems for years now. The problems were exacerbated during the Olympics, causing Zetterberg to withdraw from playing for Sweden.
According to NHL.com, Zetterberg was on the operating table at the same time that Sweden topped Finland 2-1 in the semifinals to earn its way into the gold medal game.
Niklas Kronwall--Zetterberg's Detroit and Sweden teammate told a Swedish newspaper that Zetterberg reached out to him before the game.
"[Zetterberg] sent a text and told me he would be sedated during the entire game but he wished us luck and said he wanted to wake up and see that we won," Kronwall told the newspaper. "It feels good that we could give it to him."
Zetterberg, 33, had 48 points in 45 games for the Red Wings off of 16 goals and 32 assists.
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