Toews’ lengthy battle with COVID-19 proof pandemic is no joke

Opinion

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This article was published 01/07/2021 (1550 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — Jonathan Toews is one of the most successful athletes to ever come out of Winnipeg, a three-time Stanley Cup champion and future Hall-of-Famer who has become synonymous with strength, poise and leadership.

And none of that meant a thing when it came to COVID-19.

Toews, 33, confirmed this week what has been whispered about for months in hockey circles — he’s a likely “long-hauler,” with lingering symptoms from a February 2020 infection that became so bad he was forced to miss the entire 2021 NHL season.

Fatigue. Lethargy. Heavy limbs he could barely move at times. Shortness of breath. Congestion. Bloating. Struggling just to get out of bed some days.

“I just think it’s a lot of things that just piled up, where my body just fell apart,” Toews said Wednesday in a two-minute video posted on his Instagram account.

It’s the kind of horror story that should send a chill up the spines of everyone, particularly those who believe the entire pandemic is a hoax and the virus is nothing more than a flu that only attacks the weak and elderly.

And, at the risk of sounding like I’m kicking a guy when he’s down, it’s a story I wish Toews would have gone public with a long time ago.

For all the impact he’s made on the ice during his illustrious 13-year career, one can only imagine the difference Toews could have made off it in this case, especially when it comes to young, healthy men like him who probably thought they were invincible. Someone with a prominent platform such as Toews might have broken through in a way that someone like Dr. Brent Roussin simply can’t. After all, if a prime physical specimen can be stricken, then anybody can.

To date, more than 56,000 Manitobans have gotten COVID-19, and there’s no question Toews is the most famous of that bunch.

In his video, the ultra-private Toews concedes he “wasn’t too vocal about the things that I went through this year.” Later, in a one-on-one interview with Blackhawks beat reporter Mark Lazerus of The Athletic, Toews described withdrawing from even those closest around him, spending months in isolation as he tried to figure out what was going on with his body.

Unfortunately, that silence led to all kinds of speculation. Rarely would a week go by that I wasn’t asked by someone about Toews, and that included receiving pretty much every potential diagnosis from armchair doctors.

“A lot of people were worried. Definitely felt bad, to a certain degree, that people were that worried that they thought it was really serious,” said Toews, who doesn’t explain why he kept everyone guessing for so long.

It was early this past winter I began hearing in the hockey community that COVID-19 was to blame, as no doubt other scribes did as well. Much as we might have wanted to break the news, it simply wasn’t our story to tell. Yes, Toews is a public figure, but he requested privacy and is not in a position of power, nor is his health anyone’s business but his own. And so we waited, hoping eventually Toews would come forward.

That day has finally arrived.

“What they’re calling it was chronic immune response syndrome, where I just couldn’t quite recover. My immune system was reacting to everything that I did, any kind of stress, anything that I would do throughout the day, there was always kind of that stress response,” Toews explained to his followers.

“It took some time, and that was the frustrating part, was not really knowing when or how we were going to get over the hump, but thankfully I have a great support team of people that helped me through it and learned a lot about the stress I put on my body during the years.”

The good news is that Toews is feeling a lot more like himself these days and has resumed skating in Chicago, with the goal of returning this fall for the 2021-22 season. He’s under contract for two more years, at US$10.5 million per season, on a rebuilding Blackhawks team that went 24-25-7 last year and missed the playoffs.

“Honestly, I haven’t taken this much time off the ice probably ever, since I was a kid at least, so it’s definitely nice to be back in Chicago, see some of the guys again, and slowly but surely settle into the life and the routine again. It’s a good feeling,” said Toews.

He believes the COVID-19 infection happened weeks before the 2019-20 season was paused in mid-March. It wasn’t so bad initially, and Toews returned to play in the Edmonton bubble in August, putting up nine points in nine games as Chicago upset Edmonton in the preliminary round before falling to Vegas in the first-round.

In hindsight, that was a remarkable performance given his condition, which began to deteriorate during the off-season.

Now, 17 months later, the veteran of 1,080 combined regular-season and playoff games is hoping his body doesn’t start to fail him again. There’s still so much we don’t know about the novel coronavirus, and recent studies have suggested up to 23 per cent of all who get sick report long-haul symptoms.

“You talk about the things that you appreciate and that you maybe take for granted, but I think the number one thing is I’ve had so many people across the hockey world and fans that have shown their support. And I think that’s the biggest thing: You realize there’s more to life than hockey,” said Toews.

“But I’m excited to get back to the United Center and play and just go out there and have fun. I think my best is going to come through, and I’m excited to get back in front of the fans.”

Here’s wishing Toews all the best. No doubt he’s got the entire province pulling for him. And hopefully the cautionary tale “Captain Serious” is finally comfortable sharing will serve as a warning to all of those who foolishly still think the pandemic is a big joke.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg