Horrifying details emerge about Max Domi’s surgery gone wrong.

First details emerge of a nightmare back surgery for Max Domi.

Fans were left stunned last week when the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that veteran forward Max Domi was being ruled out of action for an indefinite length of time. Most had been aware that Domi was playing through injury all season long but no one had suspected that surgery would require Domi to miss so much time, and for good reason.

Details are now emerging that suggest this was no routine surgery for Domi, and furthermore details suggest that the complications from this surgery were extremely serious.

In a recent column for the Toronto Sun, Toronto columnist Steve Simmons revealed that Domi had been scheduled to undergo back surgery when things went terribly, terribly, wrong.

From Simmons:

Something went terribly wrong with the surgery. For public consumption, no one is saying what. Almost every operation on a professional athlete is followed by a press release that indicates that successful surgery has taken place.

Whatever happened here wasn’t deemed successful. Apparently, Domi could not walk in the days following surgery, which created significant alarm.

It has to be said that it doesn’t sound like the Maple Leafs are responsible for this nightmare surgery taking place, with Simmons also reporting that Domi chose his own doctor to perform this particular surgical procedure. While that is not necessarily an unusual situation for a player in the modern era of the National Hockey League, in this case it appears to have had dire consequences.

Domi’s status remains in question for the upcoming 2026-27 NHL season, but at this point all the concern and focus will be on his long term health and well being.

Despite battling injury last season Domi gritted it out and appeared in 80 of a possible 82 games, scoring 12 goals and adding 24 assists for 36 points over that stretch.