"My son weighs about 25 pounds and I struggled to hold him in my arms for more than a minute without discomfort," he said Tuesday morning during a lengthy interview with La Presse.
Despite a "daily routine" that allows him to cope with pain, sitting or standing for a long time is now painful. Air travel, therefore, is "difficult".
"I got to a point where I couldn't go on," he says. "I spoke with the medical staff of what my life after hockey could look like if I didn't stop. There was a lot of doubt about how it would affect me in the long run. When we started talking about it, it became real. Life is long after the end of a career."