After playing through an injured left knee for the past few weeks, Rangers captain Chris Drury is scheduled to undergo surgery that will keep him sidelined for an estimated six weeks, John Tortorella said following Wednesday’s practice.
The date of the surgery has not been announced.
Drury, who had missed the Rangers’ past two games, had fluid drained from the knee Friday.
“They’re gonna go in and scrape his knee and take a look at it,” Tortorella said. “They haven’t really pinpointed anything. That guy has played hard for a long time and I just think it has worn on him. It certainly hasn’t been getting better. He tried like hell to keep on playing, but it has gotten to the point where he can’t.”
Drury, 34, who missed 20 games in the past eight seasons, has played in 23 games this season due to a twice-broken index finger and the injured knee. The free-agent signee of 2007 has no goals and four assists this season.
With Drury out for the stretch run to the playoffs, Tortorella felt the need to defend his captain from what he perceived to be doubts from the media about his motivation and will.
“It pisses me off that some things come out about Chris Drury that he might be out of the lineup and maybe he’s just giving in here a little bit,” Tortorella said. “That’s certainly not what has happened with this guy. He tried to play on it. We tried playing him.
“It didn’t work out. It’s a tough thing. It’s killing him. It just bugs me, so this is a good opportunity for me to say it because he’s not built that way and we all know that.”
howard.kussoy@nypost.com