from Tim Wharnsby of CBC,

"All this really didn't start until late October, early November of the lockout. In the summer it was business as usual, doing your summer training and stuff like that. Then I started to get some knee pain when I was working out and it gradually progressed. I found out I had a meniscus tear.

"I ended up getting a procedure done. No one knows for sure, but I rushed it for sure because the lockout had ended and the season was about to get started. We had Matt Greene go down on defence [with season-ending back injury in late January]. It was a shortened season. Every game counts. We wanted to go back-to-back. So I tried to press myself to get back in there, myself and the team.

"At that point and time I kept trying to comeback, but the knee kept getting inflammation. So it was time to get a second set of eyes on it. We went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. I had Dr. Stuart perform a second procedure. With that done and proper rest, I also worked with [renowned Los Angeles-based sports physical therapist Dr.] John Meyer, who has worked with Kobe Bryant when he had his knee issues.

"I committed myself after getting all this help, seeing the best. I also had an alternative treatment [Orthokine] you have probably read about."

Orthokine is a treatment, in which an athlete's blood is removed, spun in a filter to extract platelet-rich plasma, then mixed with other substances and injected back into the athlete's damaged area.

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Mitchell is scheduled to play tonight in Denver.