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TORONTO — Brad Gushue said his hip/groin problem is improving, but he’s still not sure when he’ll be ready to return to the ice.

The St. John’s skip is missing his fourth consecutive tour event to start the season while recovering from an injury that has been bothering him since the end of last season.

While it has been progressing slower than he’d like, Gushue is on the road to recovery and is at the Stu Sells Toronto Tankard this weekend supporting third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker from behind the glass.

“It’s better than what it was six weeks ago [but] I’m not ready to go yet,” Gushue said. “As far as a timeline I have no date, just when it gets better then I’ll be back and that could be in a week, it could be a month or it could be six months. I have no idea. I’m doing everything I can to get better … and hopefully we get it settled down soon.”

Gushue, the 2006 Olympic gold medallist, said he started feeling discomfort back in March during the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s Elite 10. He continued to play through the pain winning that event, as well as the Players’ Championship the following month, to clinch the Rogers Grand Slam Cup.

“The first I felt it was at the end of the Elite 10 and then it was a little bit worse at the Players’,” Gushue said. “Then it was fairly painful at the Champions Cup. We didn’t practise too much throughout April so it was bearable.

“After that it kind of seized up and got a lot worse. Mark and I were invited to the sweeping summit in May and I tried it and the pain was really, really bad to the point where I couldn’t even get in my curling delivery. It’s just been all summer trying to figure out what’s going on and to treat it properly. Everybody that I’ve spoken to has said it’s just time, which unfortunately our season started and I don’t have time.”

Nichols has moved up to skip in the interim with a rotating cast of spares filling in at third for each event. Adam Spencer, the super spare who helped power Team Howard into the Brier, latched on at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard last month and got the call again for this weekend. Charley Thomas subbed in at the Shorty Jenkins Classic in Cornwall, Ont., while Pat Simmons crossed the pond with Team Gushue last weekend to play in the Swiss Cup Basel.

“A huge thanks to come out for a weekend and play with a team that isn’t theirs. It’s an extra commitment along with what they’re doing with their own team,” Gushue said. “Adam Spencer is playing with us the rest of this weekend. It’s his second time. Pat Simmons going all the way to Switzerland was nice of him and Charley helping us out in Cornwall, so a huge thanks.

“We’re still going to need a couple more guys, I would think, but it has been a challenge to find guys that are free on that weekend and then don’t have any other family commitments. It makes you think about a fifth man but when you play 20 years without an injury you don’t think you need one. It’s good that we’ve got some quality players to fill in for us.”

For Nichols it has been a bit of a learning curve without any previous skipping experience on his resume.

“It’s improving,” Nichols said. “There’s still a lot to learn but I feel like I’ve done an okay job and the guys have been playing well in front of me so they’ve made my job easy.”

Despite the setbacks, Team Gushue has reached the playoffs in all three of their events so far and they’ve maintained the top spot on the World Curling Tour’s Order of Merit standings. Not only are they gunning to qualify for next year’s Canadian Olympic Trials, they’re also aiming to compete on home ice at the Tim Hortons Brier in March.

Gushue praised his teammates for stepping up to keep the team in contention while he’s been on the mend.

“They’ve been playing good. They’ve only lost four times so far in three events,” he said. “They’re playing well and that makes it easier for me because they’re still gaining some points and I don’t feel like I have to rush back right away.

“They’re definitely keeping us in the mix because we want to get enough points to make sure we’ve got our Trials spot. Really for us, this season, we want to make sure we’re ready for playdowns, make sure I’m healthy for that. Hopefully until the point I get back they’ll earn us enough points to keep us in the mix and hopefully they’ll even assure us a spot before I’m back but no they’re playing well.”

Nichols added that having Spencer, Thomas and Simmons come in and seemingly fit in with ease has helped a lot.

“We’ve been very lucky to have some really talented players come and fill in for us. That makes it good and makes it easy for me,” he said. “They’ve played well so that makes it really good too.”

Things were a little different for Team Gushue’s first game Friday morning against Michael Brunner of Switzerland. Spencer wasn’t able to make it and they were forced to play as a trio. Team Gushue scored a 6-2 victory relying sometimes on only one sweeper to brush alongside the rock.

“It’s tougher with only one sweeper but we kind of simplified our strategy and just make sure we keep it open a little bit and just take our chances when they give it to us,” Nichols said. “We didn’t want to get ourselves into trouble because you’re relying on one sweeper, we didn’t want to do that, but mission accomplished there.”

“If the guys thought it was light early then I would come out and help and the guy shooting would end up calling line,” he added. “We just managed with what we had and were lucky enough to win.”