Dallas Stars forward Matt Duchene to miss about three months after surgery

The Dallas Stars, a club in the National Hockey League (NHL), North America's top ice hockey league, announced on Monday that forward Matt Duchene has had surgery. He is expected to be out for about three months, leaving the team without an experienced forward early in the season.

According to the club, the 35-year-old struggled with a lower-body injury throughout training camp. On October 1 he was put on the long-term injured list.

Surgery to fix a chronic problem

Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan said in a statement that the player had "some issues" during training camp. It was initially believed he could avoid surgery, but that did not work out. The coach said: "It was a joint decision – it is better to fix this problem than just try to live with it and keep playing." He added that the problem was chronic and the team no longer wanted to put it off.

Statistics and team standing

Last season Duchene collected 45 points in 57 regular-season games, with 16 goals and 29 assists. In six Stanley Cup playoff games he added nine points (two goals and seven assists). He has not played in a regular-season game this season.

After five games, Dallas has five points and sits 11th among the 16 teams in the Western Conference.

Duchene was selected third overall by the Colorado Avalanche in the 2009 NHL Draft. He has also played for the Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, Nashville Predators and the Stars. In his career he has 936 points (387 goals, 549 assists) in 1,195 regular-season games, and 46 points (15 goals, 31 assists) in 75 Stanley Cup playoff games.