Eric Wellwood can’t feel 70 per cent of his right foot. The 30 per cent he can feel still hurts.

Wellwood was a Flyers prospect with speed to burn when he slid feet first into the boards in April, 2013 with the Adirondack Phantoms.

That’s when his left skate sliced his right ankle, severing two tendons, partially tearing a third and opening an artery. He could have bled to death in minutes.

It also ended his playing career — including 31 NHL games over three seasons — at age 23.

“Having your career taken away, it’s difficult,” says Wellwood. “But after about three months of dealing with it, I was back and ready to take on the world.”

Now 25, Wellwood has found a new life in the game. He’s the youngest assistant coach at the Memorial Cup, helping guide the Oshawa Generals to Sunday’s final.

Things for Wellwood looked far bleaker that fateful night and the months after, as if the hockey gods were playing some kind of cruel joke on one of the game’s good guys. Until his injury, Wellwood’s story was an inspiration to young, struggling players. The younger brother of ex-Leaf Kyle Wellwood was overlooked in his first draft year, 2008. The Flyers took him in the sixth round in 2009.

“When you’re a player, a young guy, and you see what this guy went through — overlooked, a late-round pick — he found away to get into the NHL,” says Warren Rychel, co-owner and GM of the Windsor Spitfires where Wellwood played junior. “I fully believe he would be a regular NHL player right now.”

The injury changed all that. Wellwood’s leg was in a cast for six months, completely immobile. His life was bed rest and video games until the cast came off and the bad news was delivered: He’d never be able to skate again — at an NHL level, anyway.

“I have very good parents, very supportive,” says Wellwood. “I was able to deal with the reality of the situation. I can’t play. There is nothing I can do about that.

“It still hurts. If I’m standing around pushing pucks, it’s not too bad. Everyone once in a while I’ll play three-on-three with the guys, just to get the competitive edge out. It will hurt after, but it’s not going to get any worse.”

He still feels the injury each day, he says: “The best way I can describe it: When you hit your funny bone and you get that vibrating feeling. I’ve become used to it. The range of motion isn’t what it was prior to the cut, but it’s good enough where I can walk and live a normal life.”

The hockey world reached out and that helped keep him going. The Flyers, for one, offered a job: “I knew I had something to fall back on right away.”

He recuperated in Windsor, his hometown. Rychel and coach Bob Boughner got in touch and Wellwood became a volunteer assistant coach for the 2013-14 season.

“We all heard about the terrible injury,” says Rychel. “The picture of it. It looks like a shark bite. He came home because he couldn’t rehab. Started coming to the rink. We put him to use, brought him on road trips. I think that really helped. . . . He didn’t sit around and feel sorry for himself. He got right into this.”

Then opportunity knocked again. D.J. Smith had been an assistant coach in Windsor during Wellwood’s playing days. Smith, intensely loyal to his Windsor connections, took over the head coaching job in Oshawa in 2012. He needed a new assistant.

“My biggest thing as a coach is trust,” says Smith. “Welly is from back home. As a player, I knew him. He’s got a great brain for the game. He has great passion for the game. The players can look at him, he just played two years ago. When he says something in practice, they realize it did work and it got him to the NHL.”

They make a fascinating pair: Smith, the extrovert; Wellwood, the cerebral good guy.

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“He’s an awesome coach,” Generals star Michael Dal Colle says of Wellwood. “Me being an offensive guy, he’s worked with me all year in practice. He’s been great for my development.

“He’s not as hands on as D.J. He’s the happy guy on the bench. He’ll tell you if you do something right. We have a bit of both on the bench. D.J.’s not afraid to rip you if you made a mistake. Welly’s always there and has your back.”

Oshawa went 3-0 in the round-robin and will play the winner of Friday’s semifinal. The Generals will draw on Wellwood’s experience and his relative youth — he won the Memorial Cup in 2009 and 2010 with the powerhouse Spitfires — to help deal with the pressure.

“I’ve talked to a lot of guys about it,” says Wellwood. “It’s just another hockey game. It’s on a big stage, and people build the games up like they are the biggest games in the world. The reality is, it’s just another hockey game.

“Once you get that mentality, your performance will be a lot better than if you were playing nervous or tense and scared.”