Could 20-year-old Bowen Byram be forced to retire due to injury?
The start of Colorado Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram's career has not been an ideal one for the 20-year-old. Byram has suffered multiple concussions in recent years, which has left him wondering whether or not he could even continue playing professional hockey at times.
Byram was a late scratch on Tuesday for the Avs, who were in Nashville to take on the Predators, and nobody really knew exactly what it was that kept him out of action, that is until late Wednesday afternoon.
The Athletic's Peter Baugh had reached out to Byram's father, Shawn, on Wednesday, but the response contained both good and bad news on the young defenseman. Per Byram's dad, the issue he is dealing with is not relating to a new concussion, but rather a past one.
Post-concussion syndrome can be quite nasty, and while a player can go stretches without experiencing any symptoms whatsoever, that pendulum can swing in that opposite direction as well and leave a player feeling a wide range of symptoms, which is basically what had occurred for Byram yesterday.
There's no clear picture as to what this means for Byram's immediate playing future, but his past symptoms included fits of vertigo that were so bad for the blueliner that he couldn't do much of anything, let alone lace up the skates and play hockey - or even train.
I would anticipate that the Avs will have an update at some point in the not too distant future, but for right now, all we can do is wait.
