Breaking: Veteran forward may be done for the season after surgery.

This could be bad news both in the short-term as well as the long-term for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

An official announcement has revealed that veteran forward Ryan Callahan has been ruled out indefinitely after he once again went under the knife in an attempt to surgically repair a hip injury that limited him to just 18 games this season.

The official announcement:

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Callahan had a follow up surgical procedure on his right hip on Tuesday in New York, performed by Dr. Bryan Kelly at the Hospital for Special Surgery, vice president Steve Yzerman announced today. Callahan is listed as out indefinitely.  

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Callahan played 18 games with the Lightning this season after having surgery to repair a labral tear in his right hip on June 21, 2016, a procedure also performed by Dr. Kelly. 

At 31-years-old any injury for an NHL player is a cause for concern, but when it's a nagging one such as this it throws up some major red flags for an organization. We fully expect that given their place in the standings they Lightning will take a very cautious approach to Callahan's injury moving forward and give him an extended period to recover in the hopes of avoiding the problem in the future, after all he is under contract for three more seasons.

As a result we fully expect Callahan may sit out for the rest of the season.