Wolski’s roller-coaster ride after neck injury
gangneung — Wojtek Wolski feared the worst.
“I thought I was paralysed,” Wolski said.
It was an innocent enough play in an early season Kontinental Hockey League game. Wolski dived to poke the puck away from Vladimir Markelov, who slid and inadvertently knocked him head-first into the boards, breaking his neck.
Wolski lay motionless on the ice for minutes with a broken neck and had to be lifted onto a stretcher. Sixteen months removed from
i wouldn’t throw around the term ‘miracle’ lightly, but it’s a miracle that he wasn’t hurt much worse than he was Matt Nichol, Wolski’s trainer
the scariest moment of his life, Wolski is not only walking and functional but playing hockey at such a high level that he’s representing Canada at the Olympics.
He calls it a roller-coaster ride from the injury to surgery and through rehab. His trainer has another word for it.
“I wouldn’t throw around the term ‘miracle’ lightly, but it’s a miracle that he wasn’t hurt much worse than he was,” Matt Nichol said.
“I think a real good positive outcome would’ve just been the fact that he’s able to get around again, do activities in his daily living and hang out with his kids and stuff like that. The fact that he could play hockey at all again was great. The fact that he could play at a professional level was incredible.
“And then the fact that he’s there at the Olympics, it’s mind-blowing.”
Wolski, 31, still gets emotional talking about the fear he had that night in Astana, Kazakhstan, and feels grateful and lucky to be back on the ice.
It was a difficult process that included the decision to have and the rehab to recover from surgery, a step that allowed the Polish-born, Toronto-raised Wolski to get back to playing at the level he once did in the NHL. —