Nathan Horton Faced With Difficult Decision That Could End His Career
BOSTON (CBS) -- Very little has come easy in the hockey career of Nathan Horton since June 6, 2011, but the current Blue Jackets winger and former Boston Bruin is experiencing his most difficult situation yet.
Horton has not played at all this season, and he hasn't skated in an NHL game since April 8. He missed the final week of the regular season and the entirety of the Blue Jackets' playoff series against Pittsburgh due to a groin injury. As it turns out, that injury was just one side effect of the real issue plaguing Horton.
Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch reported that Horton's degenerative back condition has him in "a living hell," faced with the decision of enduring the pain in hope of a "miracle" solution or opting for surgery that will end his career.
Horton detailed his debilitating pain to Portzline, saying, "I can't stand up like a normal person. I can't bend over. I can't run. I can't play with my kids. ... 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 said that he's tried a number of potential solutions, but all have failed to relieve him of the pain, which began last fall after he signed a seven-year contract that pays him an average of $5.3 million per year. The Bruins badly wanted to sign Horton at the time, as was captured on "Behind The B," but the free agent elected to sign with Columbus.
The only solution that will almost certainly work is a surgery to fuse a titanium rod to three or four vertebrae. That surgery, however, would require Horton to retire -- something he's hoping to avoid.
"I'm a ghost, but I'm not giving up," Horton said. "As long as I can hold off the surgery, I feel like there's a chance. A chance for something. A miracle. Something."
Horton, still just 29 years old, has seemingly suffered injury after injury following Aaron Rome's illegal hit in Game 3 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. That hit ended Horton's postseason, during which he scored eight goals -- three game-winners -- with nine assists in 17 games for the Bruins. He suffered another concussion the following January after taking a hit from Philadelphia's Tom Sestito. That concussion ended his 2011-12 season, but he did return to play in the lockout-shortened 2013 season. He scored seven playoff goals, three more being game-winners, while assisting on 12 more as the Bruins came just short of winning the Stanley Cup.
He underwent shoulder surgery during the summer of 2013 after signing with Columbus.
"The recovery is four to six months," Horton said at the time. "I'm hoping it's four. I just want to be 100 percent and come back and never have a problem with it again."
Unfortunately for Horton, it was during that recovery from shoulder surgery when his back began to bother him to the point where he said he could hardly tie his own skates. As a result of compensating for the back pain while skating, Horton suffered the groin injury that prematurely ended his first season with the Blue Jackets. Now, he faces the prospect of his entire career ending early.
"I don't want to have surgery, because of what that means," Horton told Portzline. "I don't want to live with this pain, but I don't want to make that decision. It's hard for me to say that, at 29 years old, I'm done. I mean, really? Done at 29?"
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