Injury to Maple Leafs top prospect Easton Cowan confirmed.

It is indeed an injury for Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan following a violent collision last week.

On Friday I covered a monster hit that knocked Cowan out of a game between the Oshawa Generals and London Knights after he was on the receiving end of a monstrous hit at center ice courtesy of Generals defenseman Zackary Sandhu, and unfortunately we now know that hit has cost Cowan big time.

On Monday morning, Hockey Canada confirmed that Cowan would no longer participate in their training camp for the upcoming World Junior Championship citing "precautionary reasons" and we now know that decision was indeed made as a result of the hit this past Friday.

There was serious concern that Cowan might be dealing with a concussion as a result of the hit, with both Cowan and Sandhu's heads colliding during the violent impact of that hit, but it appears that is not the case. A report from The Athletic's Joshua Kloke has indicated that Cowan is currently dealing with whiplash as a result of the hit rather than a concussion, which has to be viewed as good news as it is likely to be a much more short-term type of injury than a concussion could potentially be.

The whiplash diagnosis will come as no surprise to anyone who witnessed the hit on Friday night as it truly did resemble a car wreck at center ice. The hit from Sandhu appeared to be a clean one, with the Generals defenseman driving his shoulder through Cowan's body, but unfortunately the two men would also collide heads as a part of that impact. If anything it was Sandhu who got the worst of that head on head contact, with Cowan's helmet being driven into Sandhu's face. The collision left Sandhu down on the ice, with blood clearly leaking from his face all over the ice as well, but we now know that it had a negative impact on Cowan as well.

Cowan left Friday night's game and did not return, and there has been no word on when he is expected to return to action.