Brad Gushue sidelined for start of season with hip/groin injury
OAKVILLE, Ont. — Brad Gushue will miss the start of the curling season due to a hip/groin issue.
The St. John’s, N.L., skip made the announcement Thursday via Facebook just prior to his team’s first game at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard.
While Gushue will not need surgery, the injury is expected to keep him sidelined for at least the first couple events.
Team Gushue will continue to fulfill their tour dates with third Mark Nichols moving up to skip this weekend in Oakville and spare Adam Spencer subbing in at third. Second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker are staying put in their regular front-end roles.
Nichols said the team has known about Gushue’s injury for quite some time. Although no timetable has been set he hopes to have his skip back in the lineup soon.
“Brad played through quite a bit of pain towards the end of last season,” said Nichols, who won an Olympic gold medal with Gushue in 2006. “No one knew about it but he was in quite a bit of pain and he’s had a number of doctors check it out. It’s unfortunate that he’s not better yet, but we think he’s going in the right direction now that it’ll hopefully only be a couple of events and he’ll be able to get back on the ice.”
Team Gushue, the defending Stu Sells Oakville Tankard champions, had a stellar year last season winning eight events including three Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling titles.
Calgary skip Charley Thomas of Calgary joins the team next week at the Shorty Jenkins Classic in Cornwall, Ont., although it’s unknown at this point what role he’ll play in the back end.
“We haven’t really talked to him. We kind of just said ‘are you available’ and he is available so we’ll have a discussion with him,” Nichols said. “I’m totally comfortable with him throwing last rock and calling the game and me moving back to third. I’m also comfortable with him calling the game and throwing third. We’ll see how I feel here. If I feel good then I might throw the last ones there too.”