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In November, Charlie McAvoy became the latest NHL player who’s had to deal with the repercussions of taking a puck to the face. The Bruins defenseman lost close to 10% of his body weight after being struck in the jaw, and he spoke about the pitfalls of throwing food into a blender if you’re trying to get some fuel with your mouth wired shut.
It’s been a long year for Charlie McAvoy, who injured his shoulder during last season’s 4 Nations tournament and was hospitalized due to an infection stemming from the ailment that forced him to sit out for the remainder of the NHL season.
The 27-year-old healed up over the summer and made his grand return when he kicked off his ninth year in Boston at the start of the current campaign. He had 14 points (all coming via assists) in 19 games before he was sidelined yet again after being drilled in the face by a slapshot while killing a penalty when the Bruins headed to Montreal for a showdown with the Canadiens on November 15th.
McAvoy was initially listed as day-to-day, but that ended up being an optimistic diagnosis for a player who’s been sidelined since undergoing surgery a few days after he suffered the injury. He recently returned to practice, but the healing process has been anything but smooth based on what he had to say about what he’s had to deal with over the past few weeks.
Charlie McAvoy regrets trying to blend one of his meals while recovering from a jaw injury that caused him to lose a significant amount of weight
The 6’1″ d-man was officially listed at 211 pounds at the start of the season, but it doesn’t appear that’s currently the case.
According to the Boston Herald, McAvoy revealed he lost close to 20 pounds in the course of 10 days after being forced to resort to a liquid diet as the result of his jaw being wired shut (he added he had some teeth knocked out when he suffered was officially designated as a linear fracture).
He also shed some light on the diet he’s been harnessing in an attempt to mitigate the weight loss and made it very clear there was one approach he would not recommend, saying:
“Soups have been my go-to. A lot of ice cream. Milkshakes and ice cream. It’s tough.
I tried to give it a go, blending up solid food. It’s not enjoyable. I tried chicken and vegetable and that was just a non-starter. It’s terrible.
Soups have really been my go-to and smoothies to try and get protein. Because food blended up is not meant to be eaten that way.”
McAvoy says he won’t be cleared to eat solid food until right around Christmas, and there’s currently no concrete timeline for his return. It seems safe to assume he’ll return before the NHL pauses for the Olympics, and Team USA will be hoping that’s the case when you consider he’s a lock to be on the roster when they head to Italy.