The Russian Hockey Federation announced Thursday that Alex Ovechkin will not be participating in the 2017 IIHF World Championship. This year’s tournament is being held in Paris, France, and Cologne, Germany.

The Russians left three roster spots open, which would have allowed for all three Caps stars to participate, but according to Team Russia, Ovechkin was on pain killers to finish the playoffs. Ovechkin was suffering from a lower-body injury and is afraid he would “let the team down.”

Ovechkin, who was dropped to the third line by Barry Trotz late in the Penguins series, was kneed by Nazem Kadri early in Game Five of the first round.

Ovechkin went to the locker room and did not finish the first period. However he returned to the ice for the second stanza and finished the game. Its unclear if this is the injury Ovechkin was getting treatment for.

Caps stars Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov, both pending restricted free agents, will join the team for the remainder of the tournament.

Ovi had a chance to tie Tretiak record for Worlds tournaments' participations. He has 12, Tretiak – 13.

— Sergey Demidov (@smdemidov) May 11, 2017

Here’s the full release from the Russian Hockey Federation.

The Russian national team’s coaches have decided to call two Washington Capitals players up to the 2017 World Championship roster: defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Forward Alexander Ovechkin cannot join the team at the World Championship because of a lower body injury. Russia’s coaches contacted three Washington players, with all of them agreeing to travel to the tournament. However, during a conversation with coaches, Alexander Ovechkin stated that he is ready to join the team immediately as he always does, but doesn’t want to let the team down because he finished the NHL playoffs on pain numbing injections.