Connor McDavid takes matters into his own hands to deal with ankle injury

If you're an Edmonton Oilers fan, then you're used to the team dealing with adversity and tough times. Certainly, a second consecutive slow start to a campaign isn't going to faze you too much, especially when you consider the fan base dealt with 10 consecutive seasons of no playoff hockey between 2006-07 and 2015-16.

However, even Oilers fans will admit it's a different kettle of fish, when it comes to the best player in the game suffering an injury. Connor McDavid was forced to leave Monday's game in Columbus, after appearing to be tripped and subsequently jamming his left leg into the boards.

At the time of writing, we're still waiting for confirmation of just how serious McDavid's injury is, after he returned to Edmonton for further evaluation. As you can imagine, there are differing reports on what the Oilers and their fans can expect.

Anything between nothing serious to a long-term absence

On the one hand, TSN's Ryan Rishaug reported that the injury was nothing too serious, albeit this was the early indication. At the other end of the spectrum, as per Hockey Feed, it was suggested that McDavid could be out of the lineup long-term.

Just to make sure that all bases were covered, there was a third report from Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff, which claimed the best-case scenario was that McDavid would be out for three weeks. So what the heck are we to actually believe?!?!

Well, what we do know for sure, is that the seven-time NHL All-Star will miss the remainder of the Oilers' current road trip. This means games in Nashville and Calgary, on Thursday and Sunday evening respectively.

McDavid taking matters into his own hands

In any event, it has also now been reported that McDavid himself is taking steps to get the ankle injury dealt with, so that he can return to playing as soon as possible. As per the 2 Mutts Hockey Podcast, his own personal trainers and medical staff are also in Edmonton, to help understand the injury and work with the Oilers to find the best path forward.

At this point, it's important to stress to fans this is nothing to worry about, e.g. any concern McDavid's people are interfering where they shouldn't be. His staff have worked with the Oilers before, so there is a relationship already established between everyone involved.

Besides, everyone has the same end goal of helping McDavid get healthy and back on the ice playing again as soon as is feasible. It's not a situation where anyone is going to screw this situation up with someone as important as number 97.

In any event. it's now a case of waiting for a more definitive timeframe for how long McDavid will be out for. And in the interim -- regardless of how long it is -- it's up to the likes of Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to step up and fill the void as best they can.

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