ARLINGTON, VA — The Washington Capitals announced Thursday that rookie Ryan Leonard will miss the next three to four weeks with a shoulder injury.

Leonard has been out since taking a hit from Anaheim Ducks forward Jacob Trouba on December 5. Head coach Spencer Carbery added Thursday morning that Leonard also injured his face in the collision, but noted that he did not have a concussion.

#Caps Ryan Leonard sustained a shoulder injury during the game on Dec. 5 in Anaheim. Based on the injury and the expected course of rehabilitation, his projected recovery time is approximately 3-4 weeks.

“He’s got facial injuries,” Carbery said. “I’m not going to go into the specifics of what areas of his face, but he does not have a head injury. Facial, whatever you want to call it, (and) shoulder injury.”

Carbery previously said that Leonard would be out for an “extended period of time” but had declined to offer specifics. The Capitals’ timeline would place Leonard’s return in early to mid-January.

Leonard went down the tunnel early in the first period against the Ducks after a blindside hit from Trouba. He stayed down on the ice in visible pain for around 15 seconds before heading to the locker room with a visibly bloodied nose.

Despite protests from the Capitals both during and after the game about the high hit, Trouba was not penalized for the play and received no supplemental discipline from the NHL.

“We have to do something as a league (about those kinds of hits),” Carbery said on Sunday. “I don’t know where this goes, if anything — it’s just the head contact is the key, right? That’s the key to all of this, is the head contact, and whether he’s low, and he’s in a very, very vulnerable spot.”

Two days after the injury, Leonard was spotted wearing a sling in the Capitals locker room during the team’s postgame celebration.

Carbery told reporters on Thursday that Leonard’s prognosis was worse than he’d hoped for at first, but better than he’d feared, given the nature of the hit.