The center stands in Frölundaborg in white socks and a pair of slippers. He doesn't get his feet in a pair of shoes - and played lately in both the New York Rangers and the Hartford Wolf Pack with injured feet.
Eventually Andersson got tired - and left the United States with the first best flight.
He didn't even get the equipment ...
- There have been many incidents. I can't go into exactly all the things, I'll take that a little further. There have been many incidents that have touched me on a personal level, things that have made me not feel good mentally. In hockey terms, it might be an idiot decision, but I have to think about privacy as well.
Lias is silent.
- I feel myself that I have not had the hunger and the look for it anymore - and there have been many incidents that have disturbed me. I feel I need to get it right, Lias says.
Can you arrange everything here at home - if you restart?
- I know I'm a good enough hockey player to play over there. I think I proved that during the preseason. I thought I was pretty much a spot on the center side after Mika Zibanejad, but…
Andersson continues:
- Hockey self-confidence is probably still there somewhere, but it has become too difficult mentally due to certain things. Well, that's it.
Many people think you are wasting your career?
- Yes absolutely. But there is a career that is more important - and it is friends, family and my health. In terms of hockey, we will see that in a few years, it may not be the smartest decision if I want to play in the NHL. But there is hockey in several places. Many people think it's a hockey decision I've made, but it's for my health that I've made this decision.
Played injured
When GP visited Lias Andersson in the Hartford pharmacy a couple of years ago, the talent sat alone in a hotel room with a series of pill jars of painkillers in front of him.
His shoulder was frozen - and he couldn't raise his arm over his shoulder.
He got to play injured.
- That is only a small part of it all, but it is clear that it has been difficult to play when you have not been able to perform to the maximum - because you were in pain. It's just a hockey part of it all.
At home in Sweden, Lias has lived at home with mother Jessica and dad Niklas - and got to see the younger brother Noah SHL debut for Färjestad. He has met friends and greeted Jacob Moverare, who rents Andersson's apartment in central Gothenburg.
- Dad understood why I went home - and I think more people will. I've talked to my friends, my family, agents. They really understand why I went home. It feels safe, says Lias.
- When you don't know the whole truth, it can look like a fool's decision. But I'm not a spoiled shit kid who complains about not being allowed to play hockey for the New York Rangers. That's not the thing. There are other factors.
During the past year, a number of hockey coaches were allowed to leave their clubs in the NHL. Among other things, Mike Babcock from the Toronto Maple Leafs was fired after bullying stories emerged.
Has it been anything like that for you, Lias - that you were bullied?
- I don't know what to say or what to answer. It's been tough, that's it. I will tell you when it's location.
V ad says the other Swedish players in the Rangers, such as Mika Zibanejad and Henrik Lundqvist?
- It is, of course, sad when you have come so close to each other on the private plane, that they become sad when such a thing happens. But on the other hand, health goes first - and they understand that too.
Starts - in Frölunda?
What then does Frölunda's coach Roger Rönnberg say about getting Lias Andersson as center - if he would like to start over in Sweden?
- Lias is a player I would welcome every day of the week. In soul and heart he is a Frölunda player. We can't discuss it because he is a Rangers player. In my eyes he is probably good at being out there, says Rönnberg.
Lias smiles when he hears the words.
- It feels safe to know that I am welcome. It has been nice to be able to come home to family and friends, to land from everything that has been. I want to go back to hockey soon and hunger to hockey, hopefully.
Andersson will be investigated in Gothenburg.
- I'll be back pretty good soon and shit. I don't think anything is broken. I'll be back to the doctor pretty soon and do an x-ray a week to see what's wrong. I hardly know myself.
