Report: Injury forces replacement of Zetterberg on World Cup roster.

There was some very surprising news on Thursday morning jut a few short weeks away from the upcoming Wolrd Cup of Hockey tournament with Team Sweden making the announcement that Henrik Zetterberg would not be representing his country.

According to a report from the National Hockey League Zetterberg suffered some form of knee injury during his offseason training, and it's believed that this is the injury that has led to him sitting out the tournament.

Team Sweden's coach Rikard Gronborg released an official statement naming Zetterberg's replacement.

"Henrik Zetterberg feels that he can't go 100 per cent at the time of the World Cup and has to turn down the spot on our team, we feel that with Mikael Backlund we will get an internationally experienced player that is very versatile and responsible. His second half of the season with the Flames was very strong, where he showed that he is a premier all around player in the NHL."

It's a tough one for the Wings who will not only lose the chance to have one of their vets warm up prior to the season by playing against the world's elites, but also because he now could be heading into the season on limited preparation depending on how limited he will be by his knee.