The Senators will have to soldier on without Craig Anderson.

Away for a leave of absence while his wife Nicholle undergoes treatment for throat cancer, coach Guy Boucher told reporters Wednesday it’s going to be “a while” before Anderson suits up for the Senators again.

While the club’s top goalie visited with his Ottawa teammates during their visit to Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, Boucher indicated Anderson needs more time with his family and won’t be ready to play before mid-January.

“The reality is this: It’s not for tomorrow, it’s not for next week, it’s going to be a while,” Boucher said after a skate at the Canadian Tire Centre. “I’d love to tell you it’s week-by-week but it’s not next week.

“We’re talking, if he’s here in the next two weeks, it will be to do a practice here and there. After mid-January, whenever he comes in, he’ll need quite a bit of time to practise to get his timing back and whatever else. It will be a long time before he plays again. Let’s not kid ourselves.”

Boucher said Anderson needs to take care of his family first and then worry about returning to play for the Senators. He hasn’t played since left the team on Dec. 5 after an 8-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“We want them to take care of what they need to take care of and right now they’re obviously in the middle of things and I’m sure it’s very difficult,” said Boucher. “I don’t want to add on by saying, ‘He should be here’ and put pressure (on the family).

“What’s fair to say for you, and for everybody to know, is it’s going to take a while before he’s back. When he’s back, he’s going to need quite a bit of time to practise and get into game situations. It’s been a while now. It’s not like it’s been a week. It’s been a long time. We have to be fair to him when he comes back, whenever that is, give him the time to get back in game shape and timing-wise. We’re looking at a long period here.”

Condon will make his fifth straight start — and 13th consecutive appearance in the club’s net — against the Detroit Red Wings Thursday at home. He has been pressed into duty with Anderson unavailable and Andrew Hammond out with a groin injury, but Condon won’t complain one bit.

“You never want to give up the net. You never want to leave the net if you can play and you’re healthy,” said Condon.

The Senators have a five-day break starting next week so you can expect that Condon will start against the Capitals on New Year’s Day in Washington. Matt O’Connor is here as backup and may get pressed into duty at some point, but the Senators’ schedule isn’t compressed in January.

WAITING ON MACARTHUR

The Senators were hoping to have winger Clarke MacArthur back after the five-day break ends on Jan. 7 vs. the Washington Capitals.

That’s not going to be the case and his comeback from post-concussion syndrome has been put on hold.

While MacArthur still has to get clearance from the doctors if he’s going to return, GM Pierre Dorion indicated on the TSN broadcast Tuesday night the veteran winger won’t return before late January or early February.

Boucher said the Senators are going to be cautious.

“After mid-January we’ll see him get on some lines for real and from there we’ll see where we go,” Boucher said. “It’s not next week, it’s not this week, it will take a while. It’s not worse than it was.

“This is just precautionary things we have to go through to make sure when he gets back, he really gets back.”

MacArthur suffered his fourth concussion in 18 months in training camp and hasn’t played a regular-season game since October, 2015, so it makes no sense to rush his return.

“Without giving a specific date, I would say it’s somewhere hopefully around (late January),” Boucher added.

THE LAST WORDS

It says a lot about Daniel Alfredsson that he’ll be the first player in the modern-day history of the franchise to have his number retired when the No. 11 is officially taken out of service on Thursday night.

Alternate captain Dion Phaneuf never got the chance to play with Alfredsson but certainly respected him as a competitor.

“What sticks out for me is just how hard he played the game for a skilled guy,” Phaneuf said. “He had an incredible skill-set but he was hard to play against but you knew he was going to compete and battle for his space.

“When you played him hard, it seemed like he liked that challenge. That’s what I remember about playing against him and I was fortunate to play against him a lot. He backed up (his skill) with a work ethic.”

For his part, Boucher wouldn’t mind if Alfredsson came out of retirement.

“I wish he was playing,” the Senators coach said jokingly.