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Lemieux's Back Pain Is Back

February 10, 2001 / 8:18 PM EST / CBS/AP

This is the news the Pittsburgh Penguins didn't want to hear so early into Mario Lemieux's successful comeback - his back is hurting again.

Lemieux was limited to one assist in the Penguins' 5-4 overtime victory Saturday over New Jersey, then disclosed his back began bothering him again during practice Friday.

Lemieux was in so much discomfort Saturday that he had to have someone tie his skates, as he often did during his recurring bouts with back pain from 1990-97.

"That was like the old days," said Lemieux, who played nearly 20 minutes Saturday despite the pain.

The six-time NHL scoring champion cut short his career at age 31 in 1997, mostly because he was weary of trying to play with a sore back. He missed nearly half the 1990-91 season following back surgery and most of the 1993-94 season after an operation to repair a herniated muscle in his back.

Lemieux missed a quarter of the 1992-93 season with Hodgkin's disease, or cancer of the lymph nodes.

Lemieux had some back pain following the first two games of his comeback in late December, but attributed that mostly to the fatigue that he anticipated after ending a 3 1/2-year retirement.

This time, Lemieux said the pain was more like that he had previously in his career. He left the ice after only 13 minutes of practice Friday and called in physical therapist Tom Plasko, who worked on his back that afternoon and again Saturday morning.

"The back guru (Plasko) got a lot of work," Lemieux said.

Plasko began working on Lemieux's back for the last couple of seasons before he retired in 1997, and Lemieux credited him with helping keep him on the ice. Lemieux missed only a dozen games in 1995-96 due to illness and injury and only six in 1996-97 before he retired.

Despite the latest back problem, Lemieux still made the trip to Minnesota for Sunday's game and expects to play.

Lemieux has 17 goals and 18 assists in 18 games since coming out of retirement, and also scored a goal Sunday in the All-Star game. He has at least one point in his last nine games. The Penguins are 12-5-0-1 since he returned, 9-2 at home.