'A definitive and long-term solution' - Dr. Mulder

BROSSARD - After the Canadiens announced that Shea Weber underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee on Thursday, the team's head physician, Dr. David Mulder, addressed the media to provide more information on the star defenseman's condition and progress.

On Weber's prognosis and recovery:
I think it should be very straightforward. He's had an excellent repair of the meniscus. Dr. Robert LaPrade [the orthopedic surgeon who operated on Weber in Vail, CO] is a world expert in that. He's given us an estimate of return to play in five to six months from June 19.
He will be OK. Both specialists [Dr. Robert Anderson, Weber's orthopedic foot surgeon, being the other] were very optimistic. Each one was very proud of their work, and they all say they anticipate a full recovery. The only thing is that it's going to be later than we thought it would be.
On Weber's reaction when he found out about the tear:
I wasn't there with Shea, but I talked to him subsequently. He was disappointed, but in a way he was relieved that we had found what was going on with the knee. He was disappointed that it was more than we thought, but he was also pleased that now there was a definitive and long-term solution.
[...] you can imagine this was certainly a shock to Shea, it was a shock to me, it was a shock to the whole organization, and we needed a little time for everybody to recognize it and grasp the seriousness and the timeline.

On repairing Weber's meniscus, as opposed to removing it:
That's a very important point. In terms of Shea's well-being and status as a professional athlete, repairing the meniscus is by far the best thing to do. That ensures his knee will get back to full strength. We think he should get back to the same height of performance.
On the the correlation between Weber's injured left foot and the injury to his right meniscus:
I don't think there is. I think they're unrelated injuries. The injury to the left foot and ankle is very rare, I've never seen one like it.
On what might've caused the injury to Weber's tendon in his left foot:
Dr. Anderson's theory is that maybe with the healing of the fracture, it left a little bit of an irregular bone, and the tendons wore over that and also contributed to tenosynovitis, an inflammation of the tendon sheath. But we don't have any black and white evidence of that.