DETROIT – Detroit Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha revealed Wednesday that he suffered more damage than the team previously revealed after he was taken down by Jake Muzzin on Dec. 21.

“I had a punctured lung. That’s what took six weeks to heal,” Mantha said. “We don’t want to risk that.”

Mantha said his ribs punctured his lung due to the force of impact when he hit the ice after being slew-footed by the Toronto defenseman during an altercation late in the game.

“It was probably the worst pain I’ve been in,” Mantha said. “On top of all that I got the flu on Day 2 of being injured. I had a 103-degree fever. It was just a terrible first week.”

Mantha passed a concussion test Tuesday, enabling him to ditch the orange non-contact jersey he wore in practice Sunday and take some hits in practice Wednesday.

He said he hopes to return to the lineup within 10 days.

“I’m going to have to get pushed in practice to see how it feels,” Mantha said. “From there we’ll see if it’s first game next week or fourth game next week. Hopefully it’s before the 15th of the month.”

He said he feels good on the ice and the injury is healed.

“The first 10 days after it happened, I couldn’t do anything; we had to be careful for it not to collapse,” Mantha said. “And then once we did a CT scan at about week 3 is when we started to move again and started the gym again.”

Muzzin was not disciplined by the NHL. Mantha was sticking up for Madison Bowey, who had been hit by Muzzin.

“It’s what it is. Not every hit gets punished in this league,” Mantha said. “It’s part of the game, I guess. It’s kind of a slew-foot in my head. It’s what it is, and we need to move on. He’s a youngish guy, I’m a youngish guy, so we’re going to see each other again in this league at one point.”

The Red Wings and Maple Leafs play once more this season, April 2 in Toronto.

Mantha has 12 goals and 12 assists in 29 games. He missed eight games with a knee injury (Nov. 24-Dec. 12) and got hurt again in his fourth game back.

“Anthony is not going to come back and be the Anthony that he was at the beginning of the year right away,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “He had training camp to get ramped up. This is just walking in after being off a significant amount of time.

“But he was our best offensive player at the beginning of the year. He can be an elite player in this league.”

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