“I wouldn’t recommend a return,” she says, and something about the way she says it has it sink into him finally, that this is it for him, that he’s never going to get back on the ice. That even if the symptoms go away, even if he can start conditioning again, run a fucking mile without feeling like he’s going to die at the end of it, even if he gets into the best shape of his life, it won’t matter. He’s through.
