Joffrey Lupul is latest forward to miss Maple Leafs practice

TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs are already banged-up at forward, and now they might have to play without Joffrey Lupul.

Lupul did not practise Wednesday before the team was set to fly to Nashville to face the Predators. The winger was replaced on the second line by AHL call-up Josh Leivo.

Lupul, who missed the start of training camp with back spasms, played 18:38 in the Leafs’ loss to the Colorado Avalanche. At one point he limped off the ice after an apparent knee-on-knee hit but did not leave the game.

Toronto is already without David Clarkson because of his 10-game suspension, Nikolai Kulemin because of a bone chip in his ankle and Frazer McLaren because of a broken right pinky finger.

Jay McClement, who missed the Colorado game for the birth of he and his wife’s first child, was back on the ice at practice Wednesday.

Before practice, the team recalled Leivo, forward David Broll and defenceman T.J. Brennan and sent forwards Jamie Devane and Trevor Smith back to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.