Forward likely done for the season, has contemplated retirement.

It's another reminder of just how devastating a blow to the head can be to a player's career.

Ottawa Senators forward Clarke MacArthur recently opened up about his struggles with concussions, and more specifically the concussion that his kept him out of the line up for the majority of the season. MacArthur spoke with Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen and admitted that he's in the position he's in now because he initially tried to downplay his concussion.

“I feel like if I had just went with my gut instinct from Day 1, I would have missed 10 games and I would have played the rest of the year,” MacArthur said in an exclusive interview with Postmedia at his Ottawa home last week. “It would have been a different situation. It could have been a completely different year.”

MacArthur didn't go with his gut, and when he suffered a head injury in the preseason he tried to hide it because he knew it was serious and could cost him time in the line up if he came clean.

“It stunned me, it was like the (concussion) before and I was thinking ‘oh, no,’” said MacArthur. “I went to the bench, trying to hide it almost, but the trainers saw it.”

MacArthur kept playing through it, and in October, when he suffered a second head injury while still suffering from the initial one, his season was over. MacArthur admits it was so bad he even contemplated retirement.

“At one point in late November, early December, I was thinking I was done, maybe this is it,” he said. “I had to get out of there. Every day you’re coming to the rink and you want to go on the ice. It’s like going to Disneyland. Everyone else goes on the rides and you’re outside the doors, watching.”

Thankfully rumors suggest MacArthur will not play again this season, so there's no chance of him coming back too early this time, but one has to wonder just how much another head injury could impact him if he does make his return to the National Hockey League next season.

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