Auston Matthews' knee recovery is the biggest question hanging over the Toronto Maple Leafs, and new details just surfaced this week.
Dr. Shawn Robek, the Arizona-based chiropractor who has worked with Matthews for roughly four years, went public on TSN 1050 Thursday morning.
A photo of the two together on Robek's Instagram sparked speculation across X this week, landing right as fans start asking about training camp readiness.
Matthews tore his MCL and suffered a quad contusion on March 12 against the Anaheim Ducks, a knee-on-knee collision with Radko Gudas that ended his season.
He finished the year with 27 goals and 53 points in 60 games, going minus-4 before the injury shut him down for good.
"I met Auston about four years ago," Robek said. "I met Clayton Keller, and through my relationship with Clayton I got to know Auston and Judd."
That relationship has grown into full biomechanical maintenance work, not just injury fixes. Robek called it a collaborative effort involving a full team of specialists.
Gudas resurfaces with Panthers after hit that ended Matthews' season
"With Auston, low back was not the concern this year," Robek said. "We're taking care of his knee, and I was part of the team addressing the soft tissue around that injury."
Robek pointed to strength coach Bill Knowles as the specialist handling the actual load and demand on the rebuilt tissue, calling that piece outside his own lane.
Getting a call to work alongside Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, he said, raised his own bar. Watching their daily habits, he added, showed him what elite recovery actually looks like.
Gudas drew a five-game suspension for the hit. He was later dealt to the Florida Panthers in late June and is back in the league this season.
This isn't Matthews' first physical setback. An upper-body issue limited him through 2024-25, when he scored 33 goals in 67 games after a franchise-record 69 the year before.
Back in 2021-22, Matthews scored 60 goals and won the Hart Trophy. That version of him feels far away after two straight seasons cut short by injury.
Toronto finished last season 32-36-14 with a minus-46 goal differential, and Jim Hiller takes over as head coach with Matthews' health as his single biggest variable.
Robek's update sounds encouraging, and maybe it is. But an entire team of specialists working around the clock is also a pretty loud signal about how fragile things still are.
Whether all that work gets Matthews anywhere near 60 goals again is a question nobody, including his chiropractor, is willing to answer yet.
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Will Auston Matthews return to 60-goal form after two straight injury-shortened seasons?
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