There are serious concerns about Mike Ribeiro's well-being after the NHL free agent fell deeper into struggles with alcoholism this summer and lost touch with family and friends, according to agent Bob Perno.

Speaking to Richard Labbe of La Presse, Perno told of an offseason tailspin that began with a relapse in May. He said Ribeiro, who split last season between the Predators and their AHL affiliate in Milwaukee, is again separated from his wife and three children and "has not put on the skates once since the end of the season."

Retirement is likely.

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"Nobody really knows what he's doing these days," Perno said in the interview, translated from French to English. "The problem is that Mike thinks he's not sick. In his head, everything is beautiful. He eventually left the rehab program offered by the NHL last winter. We worry a lot, but we can't do anything. Every time my phone rings, I hope it's him."

Ribeiro, 37, had been participating in the NHL/NHL Players’ Association substance abuse and behavioral health program since 2014. He'd played 46 games with Nashville last season until relapsing sometime before Christmas and ceased attending meetings offered through the league, Perno said.

The Predators caught wind and waived Ribeiro in February; coach Peter Laviolette said it was an attempt to honor a trade request from Ribeiro, who wanted to finish his career in the NHL. Except Ribeiro went unclaimed, and he spent the next several months in the AHL while his former teammates made a run to the Stanley Cup Final.

Ribeiro enjoyed plenty of success after entering the league in 1999, a veteran of 1,074 NHL games combined with five teams. He had 21 assists and 25 points with the Predators last year, but fell out of favor with Laviolette and was a healthy scratch in five of his last 11 games.

"There is not a single NHL or even European team that has called me to inquire about his services," Perno said. "The way his career is going to end is very disappointing."

If Ribeiro has skated in his final NHL game, it would be a sad end for a once-celebrated player whose career quickly went south.

In 2013, a civil lawsuit accused Ribeiro of sexually assaulting the family's former nanny, who was 18 at the time of the alleged incident. Facing public backlash, the Arizona Coyotes, for whom he played in 2013-14, bought out the remaining three years in his contract. He and his wife separated, and while the legal case hung over Ribeiro's head, he accepted a one-year offer from the Predators and moved his family to Nashville.

Ribeiro settled the lawsuit out of court in 2015.

At some point since, Perno says the troubled center turned to alcohol. And despite outreach attempts by his wife, Laviolette and the NHL Players' Association, Ribeiro has resisted pleas to resume treatment, according to Perno, a troubling state that he says has everyone concerned for Ribeiro's health.

“To answer your question, I don’t think he’s hit rock bottom,” Perno said Wednesday in a separate interview on TSN 690. “We’re trying to get a hold of him in Nashville. We know he’s somewhere in Nashville. His family has seen him. His wife has seen him — briefly — and then he disappeared into the woodwork. We’re trying to get a hold of him. He doesn’t answer his phone. Nobody hears from him. I don’t think he’s hit rock bottom.”