Former Red Wings forward Johan Franzen engaged in an incredibly lengthy conversation with HockeySverige.se’s Ronnie Ronnqvist, who published a novella of an article as part of his “Old School Hockey” series.
The vast majority of the interview with the 40-year-old Franzen consists of discussions regarding his hockey upbringing in Landsbro, Sweden, his attempts to break into the pro game, his status as an incredibly shy human being and, eventually, his career in Detroit.
This time, however, there’s no mention of that certain former coach who is definitely not on Franzen’s Christmas card list, and the interview concludes with a health update from the big goal-scorer, who has suffered greatly from post-concussion issues over the past couple of years.
It sounds like Franzen has finally turned a corner in his attempts to recover from the most debilitating parts of his post-concussive symptoms, but he’s not anywhere close to 100%, and he may never get back to that point.
Anyway, what follows is a rough translation of the pertinent part of the interview, which is in Swedish:
“It’s been a great job for my family”
Johan Franzen’s career ended in a sad way after he had recurring concussion problems after sustaining several concussions.
“My body gave up after too many concussions. What actually happened is that I took blows that disrupted the center in the back o the brain, the one that sends out growth hormones when you exercise. That’s what controls the body and takes care of your hormonal balance. You could say it stopped working.”
“I didn’t recover, and could lie in bed for a week straight after an effort, a long recovery, you could say.”
“Of course, it’s been very difficult for my family. It’s also been terribly sad not being able to be with my children…”
Franzen quiets down a bit, and it’s clear that he finds it difficult to talk about it:
“…In their young years. It’s also what really made me take it easier and not stress out about everything. In recent years, I’ve put all my energy into devoting myself to my children. I haven’t been as involved as I’d like to be in their lives, but it’s gotten better.”
Despite that, Johan Franzen was determined to continue playing at an elite level.
“Actually, I had those thoughts all the time. Every time I felt very energetic I was very happy. Then I had to start to train a bit slowly because I knew I had to hold on.”
“When I managed to stay fresh for two weeks, I got a bit of a rush to come back, but it went the same way every time. I hit a wall. Then I was bedridden for a couple of weeks or a couple of months. I started over at square one again, and I did that about 20 or 30 times.”
“It’s only in the last year that I’ve understood that it’s not possible to come back to the Red Wings. My goal is still be able to get fit enough to live an active life, to go out and do a real bike ride or a run, because I love doing that. This past summer I’ve also had much more energy than I’ve had in a long time.”
Outwardly, Johan Franzen also seems to be doing quite well today.
“Yes, I feel quite well. Energy-wise it’s actually been like night and day since last summer, so I’m hopeful, but I’m going slow and taking it very easy. I mostly work in the garden with some physical work,” concludes Johan Franzen, before he takes his son with him to go to Stangebro’s ice rink for practice.
Here’s hoping that Franzen is able to bury some of those post-concussive symptoms for good over the next couple of years. He has reasonable expectations in terms of his physical activity, and it sounds like he’s getting some hormonal therapy.
I do know that he got divorced, so I worry that Franzen might retreat into his own head a little too much when he does battle post-concussive symptoms in that way, but he’s obviously got two kids to keep him busy, and that’s a good thing for the shy guy who deserves to have a happy retirement.
As for that former coach and all that bullshit? There’s no reason to waste our time spending more than a sentence or two’s worth of our time on it. We all saw what happened in Toronto, and for now, there are thousands of miles between Linkoping in Sweden and the University of Lethbridge in Saskatchewan. Here’s hoping that it stays that way.
