The Toronto Maple Leafs have been rocked by news that a second player in less than a year will be lost for a minimum of one full hockey season.
But unlike defenceman Bryan Berard, whose National Hockey League career is almost certainly over because of a serious eye injury, centre Luca Cereda has been assured a heart problem will not stop him from playing professional hockey.
Cereda, the Leafs' first-round draft pick in 1999, has to undergo open-heart surgery to repair a faulty valve in his aorta. A heart murmur was discovered after an electrocardiogram and the diagnosis was made this week when Cereda underwent further tests. Both Cereda and his agent, Don Meehan, said they have been assured by Dr. Michael Clarfield and Dr. Darrell Ogilvie-Harris, two of the Leafs' team physicians, that Cereda will be able to resume his hockey career. Neither doctor could be reached for comment.
"Yeah, for sure I'll play hockey again," Cereda said yesterday. "I just have to take some rest."
Thanks to the assurances of the Leaf doctors, Cereda, 19, said he is more worried than scared about the operation. The native of Logano, Swizterland, has not decided if he will have the surgery here or in Switzerland.
"For sure I am a bit worried," he said. "It's not something easy. But I know a soccer player back in Europe. He had heart trouble and had the same operation and now he's back playing."
Meehan said Cereda will likely have the operation within a month. The decision on where it will be done will depend on how quickly it can be scheduled. There is a world-renowned heart surgeon in Toronto who has a private practice outside of the Ontario Health Insurance Plan and he may be able to do the operation within a few weeks.
"This is a common operation as these things go," Meehan said. "But it's still open-heart surgery. I gather [the doctors]feel comfortable about his prospects.
"They feel he'll be fine and will come back better than ever."
There are three main valves in the aorta, which is the main trunk of the systemic arteries that carry blood from the left side of the heart to the arteries of all limbs and organs except the lungs. The faulty valve is not functioning.
Cereda will be in hospital for three to four days and should be able to start training on a fitness bike about 12 weeks after the operation. Meehan said the doctors expect he will be cleared to begin skating in March or April, which means he will miss this season.
The Maple Leafs had planned to place Cereda in junior hockey with the Ottawa 67s this season. But he played so well at training camp that head coach and general manager Pat Quinn was thinking about sending him to the Leafs' American Hockey League farm team in St. John's.
Cereda has had this problem since birth, but he said he was unaware of any problem until now. His heart had learned to adapt with only two healthy valves.
At this year's training camp, the problem was discovered when Cereda posted a low score in the aerobic fitness tests.
"[Cereda]said he couldn't understand why his test was so low because he had been training all summer," Meehan said. "He thought there was something wrong with the test. But more tests were done and know we know why that score was so low.
"The doctors said any other player would have noticed a problem [with his heart]after a shift or two on the ice. But Luca's heart has compensated for it [since birth] so he was able to keep playing."
While he is happy that his playing career won't be lost, Cereda is bitterly disappointed at missing an entire season.
"Yes, because I was feeling good and playing good," he said. "I was learning every day.
"I just want to come back and keep going like I was in the first month."