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Oilers’ Sutton contemplates retirement: “I’m pretty tired of what I’ve done to my body”

Pittsburgh Penguins v Edmonton Oilers

EDMONTON, CANADA - OCTOBER 9: Andy Sutton #25 of the Edmonton Oilers skates against the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 9, 2011 at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Dale MacMillan/Getty Images)

Dale MacMillan

With nearly 700 games played and 11 surgeries in the books, Andy Sutton doesn’t know how much more he has left in the tank.

Actually, he’s not sure there’s anything left at all.

That’s what Sutton told ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun on Wednesday in advance of surgery No. 12 -- another knee procedure set to occur in a few weeks.

“I basically broke a chunk off my femur, the piece I broke off was giving me a lot of discomfort, so they went in and sort of cleaned up my knee and took out the chunk,” Sutton explained. “Now, I have to repair the defect that’s there. Otherwise, it’ll just keep getting bigger.

“It’s bone on bone in two spots in my knee.”

Sutton, 37, inked a one-year, $1.75 million extension with the Oilers in February. The deal was largely in part to his 2011-12 campaign -- the towering defenseman had 10 points in 52 games, finished plus-5, recorded 112 hits and averaged 16:41 of ice time, despite being sidelined by injury (he also missed 13 games to suspension.)

Edmonton also retained Sutton to be a veteran presence on a young team.

Everybody knows about the kids up front, but the Oilers are relatively inexperienced on defense as well -- Sutton and Nick Schultz are the only blueliners over the age of 30, and big things are expected of Justin Schultz (22) and Jeff Petry (24) this year.

Sutton would be a solid mentor for the group, but isn’t sure he’ll adequately recover from this latest procedure.

“I guess the road to recovery from that is quite long and arduous,” he explained. “So I don’t know, this is going to be my 12th surgery.

“I’m pretty tired of what I’ve done to my body.”