It was a minor, if unfortunate collision.

	With so many questions surrounding his health, when will Eric Lindros' answer be 'enough.'

Just a little bump with a buddy, really. Or was it two bumps, one into a buddy and the other a San Jose baddy? Or a bash with both of them, then a crack across the brow with his own stick? Or just the hand holding the stick?

Whatever it was, it left Eric Lindros with just the tiniest of headaches.

No big deal, he would say. Probably just cost him a couple of practices. Or maybe a game. Or ... What's that? CONCUSSION?

Nah, who called it that? A perfectly premature projection by all those highly educated medical specialists in the media. You'd think after all this time they'd have learned that they don't know anything, that matters of the gray don't always translate to black and white. That A and B aren't always followed by D, that 1 and 2 don't always equal 4 ... or is that C? And 2 plus 2 equals …

Seven concussions later, can Eric Lindros still make it all add up?

He hit the lucky number in a game last Friday, incurring a couple of bumps and one hit with the Sharks' Mark Smith that resulted in Lindros' stickhand thumb jabbing himself over the eye and bringing on an old familiar pain.

Confusion. Dizziness. And, as Lindros has put it, "Things just didn't feel right and look right."

So it was hardly a surprise to see the headache become a "very, very, very minor" concussion. And it wasn't shocking to see the suggestion that one of his personal neurologists visit the Rangers on this West Coast swing go from being laughed off by management to becoming a Wednesday morning media event in Edmonton.

Dr. Karen Johnston, the Montreal neurosurgeon who ranks second only to Chicago's James Kelly in having a career made by the Lindros Family, arrived in Western Canada in time for an examination that Lindros predicted would clear him to play. But it wound up with him explaining why he was suddenly put on the IR list.

"It's hovering," Lindros said Thursday, referring to the concussion problem that's haunted him for the past three years and probably for as long as he keeps playing. "It's something that's there. Some things that are broken you just can't fix. You can hope that they don't break down again. You do everything in your power to make sure that you're not in the same predicament."

If that's a begrudging admission that he's more susceptible to concussions now than he was, say, last Thursday ... consider it a lucky seventh break.

"There might be more bumps in the road (and) there might not be," Lindros said. "But Dr. Johnston said that she's real pleased with how quickly things came about. I knew it was minor. I knew it wouldn't take long. But if you have a real problem -- the little lingering ones that hang around for a long, long time -- that's when you have a bit of an issue."

He knows it's only temporary, because he's felt this way so many other times before.

"I will just keep riding the bike and if things go well, I'll get my skates on as soon as possible and get back out there," Lindros said. "Things are going along pretty well."

Yeah, just smashing. By the way, he said that after he'd been put on the injured list by Rangers officials who have gone from saying nothing to noting, "Eric has had an appropriate period of rest and is progressing very well."

Certainly, that explains it all.

There is no doubt that Lindros will be back, even if there was so much hush-hush hesitation coming out of the home offices in New York about his condition. For being just 90 minutes up the turnpike from Philadelphia, the Rangers learned years before Lindros was theirs to never speculate on when he would and wouldn't show up.

This is especially true when Lindros is battling the kind of head problems that so many people in New York were afraid of when Glen Sather decided it was a good idea to trade for Lindros. For a while, Sather was allowed to let his gloat-o-meter go off the scales.

Lindros, with 19 goals and 20 assists in 37 games, was the story of the first half of the NHL season. Now, he's just the same old story, but with a large measure of uncertainty prevailing.

Lindros hardly ventures into the middle of the ice anymore, and the way this injury happened shows why. He crashed shoulders with Smith, but Lindros only managed to punch himself with his thumb in the process. Yet he was left with a concussion. Imagine if and when he really gets belted.

So what you're left with, apparently, is an Eric Lindros who not only is hesitant to play physically, but has good reason not to. It's already changed the way he plays.

"I was hoping I would be back on my skates, but (Johnston) is taking a cautious approach, which doesn't hurt, I guess," Lindros said. "It is better to miss one more game than 15 down the road. I will be back and ready to go."

No question of that, because Eric's thumb doesn't carry the same weight of Scott Stevens' forearm. Lindros missed his fourth straight game in Denver Thursday night and -- although Johnston hasn't cleared him to play -- he's leaning toward returning Saturday in Pittsburgh. Or not.

"It's a time issue," Lindros said. "Feeling clear, being clear for what (Johnston) determines to be an appropriate length of time."

This unplanned post-Christmas vacation for Lindros carries with it a couple of interesting implications. For one, reports in Canada said Lindros is said to stand to lose $6 million as a result of this diagnosis. He's reported to have a bonus clause for that amount kick into his $3 million base if he went through the first 50 games without incurring a concussion.

"There is absolutely no mention of 50 games one way or another in Eric's contract," Carl Lindros, Eric’s father, told the New York Daily News Wednesday. So much for that.

Yet the Rangers might also feel this isn't such an unfortunately timed injury because it might make Lindros think twice about heading for Salt Lake City next month for the Olympics.

At least, that thought should be passing through his achy head.

	“	It's a time issue. Feeling clear, being clear for what (Dr. Johnston) determines to be an appropriate length of time. ”
		— Eric Lindros

"Certainly," Lindros said, "the Olympics are on the back of my mind."

Perhaps they are drifting in the back of his shuffled thoughts for now. But Lindros’ Team Canada availability will be foremost on his mind very soon.

From the time that Lindros began recovering from the Stevens hit -- the sixth concussion he and his doctors claimed he'd suffered in 27 months -- in Game 7 of the 2000 Eastern Conference finals, through to his long-awaited trade to New York some 15 months later, playing for Team Canada was of primary importance to Lindros.

Of course, it should be. He has proven time and again that if his own precious health allows it, his physical skills can sometimes go unmatched by any other hockey player in the world. What better way to prove it than by leading Canada to its first Olympic gold of the modern era, followed by the Rangers' first silver chalice since 1994?

Hey, he can still dream in that cluttered mind, even if his physical game can't be what it used to be.

"It's frustrating," Lindros said, "but it's also a situation where I know what happens. I know what it feels like and I am familiar with the steps that Dr. Johnston wants me to take."

So again, Lindros will say he's fine and again point out that there's no established medical evidence to suggest he's making himself more prone to permanent injury of some sort. Just as there is so much uncertainty about when this latest "very, very, very mild" setback will allow him to get back into action, there can be no sure thing in anyone's mind -- least of all Lindros' -- just how clear his mind is going to be in the future.

Maybe that's why when the Rangers land in Pittsburgh and Lindros is ready to return to the ice, that the nagging question way, way back in his mind might be offered at least a moment's serious consideration ...

Is it really worth it?

Rob Parent of the Delaware County (Pa.) Times is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.