Photo: Greg Fiume

John Erskine suited up 37 times for the Caps last season. Rumor has it he was playing through injury for most of them. Erskine had already lost his spot in the starting six this season before suffering an upper-body injury during a recent practice.

It was a “little bit of an older injury that sort of got irritated so we left him [in DC], had it looked at right now,” Barry Trotz said to The Washington Post’s Alex Prewitt on Tuesday. “[It] could get aggravated more as he keeps going, if he doesn’t take care of it now. [Trainer Greg Smith] said we’ll take a look at it.”

Now, the Caps tell us Erskine underwent surgery on Wednesday to repair a disk in his neck.

We do not know the exact nature of Erskine’s neck injury.

The Caps say Erskine will begin rehab in “the new few weeks,” so it seems a return to action is in the distant future.

In the final year of his contract, Erskine earns $1.9M against the salary cap. We expect the team to place him on LTIR soon, which would grant cap relief.

Get well soon, Ersk.

The Caps didn’t issue a press release per se, but here’s what they said on Capitals Today: