Photo credit: CP24

Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs have suffered a huge setback, as it appears Matthews will be out long-term. The reason? He may have suffered a severe injury to his ACL.

It was recently posted to X that Matthews isn’t experiencing an illness, but a knee injury keeps him out of the lineup.
In my opinion, Auston Matthews probably tore something in his right leg on this play.

I watched his shifts after this play in game 3 and in game 4 and he looked noticeably slower and had much less jump. Tons of torque on the front and inside of the right knee, MCL/LCL tear?

It seems like Dr. Jesse Morse in the replies Matthews could have torn his meniscus/MCL or possibly his ACL.

Looks like the MCL was stressed.

The medial meniscus is attached to the deep fibers of the MCL so technically both could be injured.

If both are compromised sometimes the ACL can get injured too.

They’re calling out with an ‘illness’ for game 5 & 6 which is strange to me, so there may be more to this knee injury.

If it turns out Matthew’s ACL is torn, he could be out long-term generally 6-9 months for an ACL injury.

These injuries are typically debilitating for athletes.

When Dr. Morse was asked if there was a possibility that Matthews could return for the playoffs, the answer fans received was bleak.
No.

MCL stabilizes inside of knee.

Can wear brace but twisting, pivoting and trying to skate would be severely limiting if MCL / meniscus are compromised

Even grade 1’s hurt bad

It seems unlikely we’ll get a certain answer for now on Matthews’ status, but it doesn’t look good.