[Not really racist!]

Old article (late April) but I feel really bad for Alberts, not the best guy defensively and really slow and pretty much forgotten ever since that bad hit

Botch article, but a lot of direct quotes so it isn't bad.

Botchford: 'Health is No. 1,' says still-concussed Andrew Alberts

Andrew Alberts played just 10 games this season: His last, Dec. 29.

Now, he is not sure when his next game will come.

"It could be in a year, five years or..," Alberts says.

He doesn't need to finish the thought.

The Brian McGrattan hit which injured him was as ugly as it was awkward. As McGrattan initiates contact he raises both arms, and wraps his right around Alberts neck, working it like a clothesline strike you'd see in wrestling.

The hit, deemed unworthy of supplemental discipline from league offices, concussed Alberts while tearing all the ligaments in the right side of his neck.

Four months later, the symptoms have improved but ever so slowly.

He didn't start skating again until mid-March. But that only lasted four days. He tried again a couple of weeks ago, both skating and working out.

"But I hit a road bump, and went back down and started the cycle again," Alberts said.

"I just had a couple of days headache free, so that's good."

It is the second time in his career the defenceman has missed four months with post-concussion symptoms. He said the last time, in 2007, he made the mistake of returning too soon.

"I wasn't going to let that happen again," Alberts said.

"Health is No. 1 right now. I'm not 22 trying to get back into a game. I'm 33 years old.

"I'd like to play again. Absolutely, I'd like to. But No. 1, I'd just like to get healthy.

"Dealing with headaches every day is not something you want to live with."

Fortunately for Alberts, he's had access to Vancouver chiropractor Dr. Don Grant, a leading concussion specialist who is helping to change how concussions are treated.

Grant has seen hundreds of NHL players during the past six years, and doesn't subscribe to the belief that players should be relaxing while waiting to resume workouts.

His techniques are sometimes dismissed as strange, partly because a lot of his work is centred around improving spinal fluid circulation.

But before the concussion, Alberts was already seeing Grant, just about from the time he arrived in Vancouver on the recommendation of Mason Raymond.

"He does a lot of small, micromanipulation work that needs to be done, instead of putting a guy in a dark room and telling him to wait," Alberts said. "He's unbelievable.

"You go see a neurologist and they may say, 'Go wait until you feel like you did before.' "You could be waiting for a long time. Then you don't know what normal is. You start feeling like crap every day because you're sitting on your couch and you're depressed.

"How do you get better? You be proactive."

The idea that NHL players can be both proactive and have resources to seek different, innovative treatments is something of a sea change for the league, one that has been further pushed along with the latest collective bargaining agreement, Alberts said "I think it's changed," Alberts said. "We had to wait for Sidney Crosby to get a concussion for it to happen.

But it happened. We now have a list of doctors and we have the right to a second opinion to go wherever we need to go around the world to see someone.

"It's no questions asked. You can see whoever you want and they don't need to share anything with the team if you don't want him to.

"He basically works for you.

"He reports to you and it's up to you what you want to do with the information."

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Botchford: 'Health is No. 1,' says still-concussed Andrew Alberts