Semin: "I won't be back until I am 100%"

 By Slava Malamud, Sport-Express, Dec. 8, 2008:

Alexander Semin, who's injured back continues to heal, didn't travel with the team to Toronto and Raleigh. He gave an interview after he had finished a truly Russian therapy, i.e. making visit to the sauna. To be exact, it was on Saturday, a legitimate sauna day for any real Siberian.

Let's start with the most important thing, how do you feel?
So far, nothing that I can say, is unclear to me. I can skate, but it hurts to shoot the puck.

The doctors nevertheless gave you a green light.
And what the point to go out with the pain in the back and then get injured again? In any case it won't be much of the help from me. Last year I came back too early and, as a result, missed half of a season. I don't want that happen again. When I will feel a hundred percent ready, then will go out and I will play. Will go through the full training session first, will feel that everything is fine, and then I'll be back.

Is there any pressure from the club?
And what kind of pressure could it be on the injured player?

It happens, like a hint, expressed displeasure.
I don't care about those hints. But I don't feel that I someone pressures me. They'd say, "Come on, heal, get well." From the guys in the team I don't feel any grievances. These are the same athletes, everyone of them knows about the injuries, any of them can be in my shoes.

Don't you think that Ovechkin plays with the injury?
I do not know and do not try to get into other people's business. I think he saw what happened to me [last year], saw what happened to Fedorov [who also returned on the ice with the injury that was not healed completely and then aggravated it], and if it was something like that, he wouldn't play too. But maybe he is simply a person that plays through the pain. As for me, I decided that I should fully recover. More to that, we'll have a lot of games to play, the season only is a few months old.

Does it happen that the players are forced to play with the injury?
For me it's not the case. Such things should be resolved between the player and a doctor and not in a full view of everyone. In this case everything depends on me. I feel much better already, but don't want to rush. Again Sergei Fedorov is an example, he went on the ice and got re-injured again. What's the point for me to do the same and then to sit even longer?

Can you tell just an approximate date of your return?
I don't even know how I will feel tomorrow. I won't guess, I'll just wait. My injury is about a pinched nerve, it's such nagging pain, like a toothache. I train like I can, I go to sauna, it might help. As of my back, the pain goes away, but then it comes back and it hurts again. In general once again I want to say, I don't want to risk anything before it is healed.

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