Former NHL enforcer Gino Odjick is fighting for his life.

Gino Odjick in bad shape.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Former NHL enforcer Gino Odjick is fighting for his life.
Jeff Vinnick/Reuters

We have some sad news to report on Saturday morning. 

According to an article recently published by Le Droit, a French language paper from Quebec, it appears as though well respected former National Hockey League enforcer Gino Odjick is once again fighting for his life. Odjick, often referred to by his nickname of "The Maniwaki Mauler" is once again suffering from amyloidosis according to doctors, a rare condition that nearly claimed his life several years ago. Amyloidosis creates protein deposits in the heart and the last time Odjick was diagnosed with the condition he was given just 1 year to live, odds he has obliterated given that diagnosis was made in 2014. At the time the functionality of Odjick's heart had been reduced to just 25% of its normal power, and he had been told that he should prepare himself to die. 

Unfortunately in spite of the fact that it is a rare condition, Odjick was able to confirm with the paper that the disease has indeed had a relapse.

"It came back about a month ago," said Odjick. "I've started chemotherapy this week. The dcots found it early so I am very confident that I will be able to get beyond this. It was a shock, but what can you do. There where several treatment options but I asked to follow the same plan I followed the last time since it work. I'll be doing chemo for the next six months."

That frankly sounds like an awful process for anyone to have to go through and at 50 years old it will no doubt be even more difficult for Odjick to recover than it was the first time around when he was several years younger. That being said though Odjick has long been recognized as one of the toughest men in the sport of hockey, only 16 other players have more penalty minutes in the history of the National Hockey League, so if anyone can beat this condition it will be him. Odjick is putting a positive spin on this, and I think that is the best thing he could be doing right now, but make no mistake about the fact that this is a life threatening situation and the former NHL enforcer is in a fight for his life here. 

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