O’Brien out indefinitely with broken wrist
Quinn O’Brien has potentially played his last game in a Charlottetown Islanders jersey.
“It’s been a tough go this year,” he said.
The Islanders captain broke his wrist during the game against the Moncton Wildcats on Dec. 30 and will be on the sidelines for the foreseeable future.
O’Brien’s wrist got trapped awkwardly during a collision with a Wildcat during the game, but he didn’t think it was anything too serious to begin with.
“Everything went numb, but I didn’t think it was anything bad,” he said. “These kinds of things happen quite often. I didn’t think too much of it, but after I got in that fight I really got sore. I was just aggravating it more than anything I imagine.”
After leaving the ice, he realized it was broken.
“Everything happened pretty fast. I went to the hospital after the game and I had a cast by the time I was in bed.”
He was expected to have surgery on Thursday, but has managed to avoid going down that path. He will be in a cast for six weeks and then will see how the healing has gone from there.
“(The doctor) said it was going to be the same timeline regardless of what he was going to do,” said O’Brien. “I could’ve decided to get surgery either way, but it’s probably going to heal better without anything in it.”
There is the potential for the 20-year-old’s injury to be healed before the end of the season, but he said the hardest part will be trying to find a spot in the lineup if he is able to return.
“At this point, the injury makes it so I don’t really have a place to play. I already have an ongoing hip injury, so that makes everything worse too.”
O’Brien played in just 31 games this season for the Isles due to multiple injuries throughout the first half. Islanders General Manager Grant Sonier said O’Brien’s season has been pure bad luck.
“Quinn’s been a unique situation. He’s been playing with a torn labrum in his hip, and then just by chance with his bad luck this year, he went and broke his wrist.”
Ultimately, O’Brien said he is disappointed to see his final season come to an early end.
“It’s just too bad that it’s my last year in the Q and given the circumstances of being captain. But you can’t get too mad about it because life still goes on.”
