Bryan Bickell's health is suddenly his foremost concern, but he appears determined to make a return to hockey.

The Carolina Hurricanes forward admitted he doesn't know what his future holds after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

"I'm just uncertain," Bickell told the Chicago Tribune's Chris Hine on Saturday. "Knowing what's next is the biggest thing. Hopefully I can get on the ice and help my team and be safe and do my job. … Hopefully my career goes longer if I play the cards right."

The Hurricanes revealed Bickell's diagnosis on Friday, and the veteran winger said in a statement that day that he's been physically affected by the symptoms since the 2015 playoffs.

"You're just scared for the other stage where I've been playing hockey for so long and this definitely could be it," he told Hine on Saturday. "There are roads in life and this could take me down a different road."

Bickell described feeling "just a little numb" one recent morning, when he awoke with a shooting pain in his shoulder, adding that he initially thought it was a pinched nerve before realizing it was something more serious.

"Everybody knows your (own) body and what's normal, what's not normal," he said. "This was definitely not normal."

Bickell said doctors told him they identified the disease in an early stage and should be able to treat it to the point that would allow him to play hockey again.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, for which there is no cure.

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