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Stephen Weiss: 'I'm ready to play, now we'll just see if Coach puts me in'

Tim Fuller / USA TODAY Sports

Pricey Detroit Red Wings pivot Stephen Weiss is nearing a return from yet another injury - this time a shoulder injury that has caused him to miss the past four games.

"I'm ready to play," Weiss told Chuck Pleiness of the Macomb Sports Daily on Monday. "Now we'll just see if Coach puts me in, but yeah I'm ready to go.

"I'm real excited. Obviously, you don't want to miss this many games but that's the way it goes sometimes with injuries. It's tough to watch these last few at home and I'm really looking forward to hopefully getting one in before (the break)."

A prized free-agent acquisition in summer 2013, Weiss has endured a multitude of injures in his first season-and-a-half with the winged wheel. Including playoffs, Weiss has appeared in just 37 of a possible 130 games since signing.

While Weiss is eager to get back to it, Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock wasn't ready to commit to inserting the 31-year-old center back into his lineup - though he admitted the veteran scoring center's return was likely.

"I don't know for sure," Babcock said of Weiss's availability for Tuesday's game against the Buffalo Sabres. "We'll know after the skate tomorrow morning, but it sure looks like he is."

It makes sense that Babcock would be cautious with the oft-injured Weiss. Beyond the obvious durability issues, by all accounts Weiss rushed back from an injury last season, which contributed to him missing as much time as he did last season.

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