A Scary Minor League Hockey Injury Led To This Blood-Covered Skate

This skate belongs to Eric Wellwood of the Adirondack Phantoms, the Flyers' AHL affiliate, who hurt himself during a game yesterday afternoon. The blood is his own, and the injury—a severed tendon in his right leg, just above the ankle— was of his own doing.

Though he did not see it happen, [head coach Terry] Murray believes Wellwood fell into the boards and clipped himself with his own skate during a second period penalty kill.

Bleeding profusely, Wellwood was immediately taken off the ice by the trainer, who deemed it enough of an emergency not to wait for a stoppage in play. (A Phantoms goal during the incident was waived off.) According to the team, Wellwood underwent surgery last night, and is probably due for a second one today.

The Glens Falls Post-Star reports that "the severed tendon could be seen clearly in the wound." Ugh.

The initial assessment revealed damage to the tendons and veins, but not any arteries. Later reports indicated that Wellwood may have cut an artery in his calf, where the artery splits into three pieces to the foot. Cutting one of those three pieces is not as dangerous as a main artery, but is still rather serious.

The above photo, of Wellwood's skate back in the locker room, was taken by teammate Danny Syvret and posted to Twitter.