It took just six games for Filip Chytil to suffer his first injury of the season.

Chytil — whose concussion history is well-documented and dates back to his time with the New York Rangers — was on the receiving end of a booming hit from Tom Wilson in the Canucks’ sixth game of the season against the Washington Capitals back on October 19th. The hit will have kept him out for over three months, but Chytil says he’s feeling good and is close to returning to game action.

“It’s been a long three months [with] a lot of hard work behind me,” Chytil told reporters after today’s Canucks practice. “Yeah, just now I need some more practices with my teammates and yeah, whenever I [can] be ready, I’m going to be back, and I can’t wait for that day.”

“From the beginning, it was very hard because I was hopeful that I could manage to play all 82 games, but it wasn’t the case,” said Chytil when asked about the mental challenges of recovering from yet another injury. “But this is the part of the sport and I can avoid it sometimes, but yeah, sometimes it is the days like [these] the last two years [that have] been very hard for myself and for my wife, for my family especially. And yeah, I missed so many events. I missed so many games in the NHL. Now I’m gonna miss Olympics as well, so it sucks, but it is what it is.”

Chytil was then asked if he has the support of his whole family to return to game action, given how many times he’s already been sidelined with injuries throughout his young career.

“Sure, yeah, everybody’s with me, of course. You guys have your own job to make articles and say things about the injury, you create your own stuff in the media… Sometimes even for my family, when they know from me firsthand what’s going on, sometimes they read here [Vancouver] or even Czech, some stuff that’s not helping them as well. Of course, there’s been some stuff from the press conference of the Czech National Team as well, so it wasn’t nice to hear that, when people who don’t know the situation [about] where I am speaks about it and make statements [on subjects] they know nothing about. So it’s been hard. But yeah, I got my whole family behind me and I’m focusing on myself right now.”

Chytil expanded on his frustration about being omitted from Czechia’s Olympic roster.

“I wanted to go [to the Olympics], and I would be very proud to represent my country. But you know, sometimes the situation is like this. But, like I said, there was something said in a press conference by our head coach [of the] Czech national team who said some stuff and made some statements which were not true and which were a little bit made up. I never got the call from him and he said some stuff which hurt my family and hurt me as well a lot because it’s not true at all. And it puts me in a bad situation mentally, you know, and even my whole family. So I’m just not happy about that. But you know, I’m focusing a lot on my recovery here now and for Canucks because Olympics is not possible now. But yeah, I’m just focusing now on coming back here and playing as best as I can.”

From what we were able to find online — and with the help Google Translate to translate to English from Czech — Czechia head coach Radim Rulik said about Chytil at the his press conference on January 6th:

“The predictions were that he would play two weeks ago, but he hasn’t played yet. For us, it’s an option only if someone falls out of the selection.”

That answer seems quite dismissive on the surface, and it seems safe to assume there is more to it than that given how bothered Chytil was about it. The Olympics kick off next month, with Czechia’s first game coming on Thursday, February 12th, with a preliminary round matchup with Team Canada. While Chyil’s Canucks teammate Filip Hronek will be there, it would seem he’ll have to watch this year’s games from home while focusing on staying healthy for the rest of the NHL season.

On the hit from Wilson that’s kept him out since October, Chytil said:

“It was a little bit late, but it’s part of the game. When I look back, of course there’s details, about what I could do different, but in that speed, in that moment, you’re not thinking about those too much. Of course I had a lot of time now to work on a lot of things. And yeah, that hit, [it’s] behind me now, and I can learn from it. I cannot forget about it because you can take so much stuff from it. But, yeah, I just have to work now to avoid those hits.”

Watch the full media availability from Chytil below!