Chicago Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews shed some light Wednesday on the previously undisclosed medical issue that kept him off the ice for the entire 2020-21 NHL season, and he said he's working his way toward a return.

"I just think there's a lot of things that just kind of piled up, where my body just fell apart," Toews said in a video. "So what they're calling it was chronic immune response syndrome, where I just couldn't quite recover and my immune system was reacting to everything that I did."

"Any kind of stress, anything that I would do throughout the day, it was always kind of a stress response," he continued. "So, took some time. That was the frustrating part, was not really knowing when or how we were gonna get over the hump. "

Toews was ruled out indefinitely in late December, and at the time said he felt "drained and lethargic." The captain and the Blackhawks kept details under wraps as he attempted to recover.

"I definitely felt bad to a certain degree that people were that worried, they thought it was really serious," Toews said. "But in the back of my mind, I knew I would get through it; it was just a matter of time."

He was fresh off posting 60 points in 70 regular-season games in 2019-20 before authoring a vintage playoff performance in the bubble, averaging a point per game through nine contests as Chicago surprisingly advanced through the qualifying round.

Toews has spent his entire career with the Blackhawks, who drafted him third overall in 2006. While captaining the franchise, Toews has captured three Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe, and a Selke while registering 815 points in 943 games. The 33-year-old has two seasons remaining on his contract.

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