Team Sweden will have 12 forwards for the remainder of the World Cup, including the semifinal against Team Europe on Sunday (1 p.m. ET; ESPN2, CBC, TVA Sports).
If Team Sweden wins, it would play in the best-of-3 final against either Team Russia or Team Canada, who play in the first semifinal Saturday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN2, CBC, TVA TVA Sports).
"It's a decision made by Calgary, the home team, and the team doctors there," Team Sweden coach Rikard Gronborg said. "You've seen other examples in this tournament of players returning home for re-evaluating and rehabbing for their NHL teams. There's nothing different here.
"Obviously we respect their decision. Obviously they're making that decision because it's best for the player himself, for Mikael to get back on track and rehab with their support. We support the decision."
The Flames have been monitoring Backlund's progress since the injury.
"Reports back are he's doing well," Flames general manager Brad Treliving said from Calgary on Thursday. "Like these injuries, he's under the [concussion] protocol right now. It's sort of a day-to-day situation. Our group saw him [Thursday]. He was doing good. He was feeling good. His symptom scores were low. But these are serious. You deal with them. You hope for the best."
