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Pens: Crosby Has Soft-Tissue Injury Of The Neck

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and General Manager Ray Shero talked to reporters following the announcement that Crosby is suffering from a soft-tissue injury in his neck.

"From what I've been told, it's been something that pretty commonly is linked with concussion symptoms kind of this type of neck stuff so, you know, like I said, that's – in a way that's pretty encouraging," Crosby says, "because you're dealing with these symptoms and there's no magic to get rid of them, but if this is contributing that's something that I can obviously treat and work on here in the next little bit and hopefully see those go away."

The team says there was no evidence found of a neck fracture – past or present.

Crosby was examined by Dr. Robert Bray in Los Angeles last week who saw something and advised him to get a second opinion.

On Monday, Crosby , his agent Pat Brisson, Mario Lemieux and CEO Dave Morehouse traveled to Philadelphia to see spinal trauma expert Dr. Alexander Vaccaro.

He diagnosed the soft-tissue neck injury and gave Crosby an injection to alleviate swelling in the C1-2 joint of his neck.

It's not clear when Crosby injured the tissue in his neck.

"It's hard to pinpoint when it happened," Shero told reporters.

In regards to the Penguins' team doctors and medical staff, Shero says every player is encouraged to get a second opinion on any injury.

"Any time [Sidney] is going for outside consultation, we're in constant contact with Sidney and the doctors – everything goes through our medical team after he sees these other consultants," he explained. "And we're all in this together and the one thing we're trying to find out is what's causing these symptoms, how we can get him back safely to play and as I've said many times, he will not return to play until those symptoms disappear."

RELATED LINKS:
Penguins Statement On Sidney Crosby
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