Semyon Varlamov ran with a risky idea to return to hockey it might give him his career back

After Semyon Varlamov underwent two partial knee replacements, Ilya Sorokin had the same question for him as everybody else. “I asked him, ‘What do you think? It’s done?’ ” Sorokin recalled Thursday.The “it” was Varlamov’s career.

“He said, ‘No, I will come back.’ First thing he said.” Somehow, some way, Varlamov looks on track to resume playing hockey games this season.He took the ice Thursday as the Islanders opened training camp, and if you didn’t know any better, you would have been unable to tell what he’d been through over the 22 months that have elapsed since he last took part in an NHL practice or game. Varlamov never had a timeline for his return.

As far as he knows, there’s no precedent for what he’s doing. Research by The Post turned up one professional athlete to undergo a partial knee replacement and return to competing at an elite level: Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn.As for NHLers or professional athletes in team sports, we could find no comparable examples. “The type of surgeries I’ve done, people [are] doing it, but not professional hockey players able to do it and try to come back,” Varlamov said.

“That was kinda like a crazy idea.Very risky idea.

I took a risk.” A risk that might give him his career back. “I wasn’t ready to retire,” Varlamov said.“Mentally, I wasn’t there.

Definitely, some days it was in my mind when things were not going well.Rehab, we had a lot of setbacks, pushbacks.

I was thinking, maybe this is it, I won’t be able to come back.But you wake up the next morning and just tell yourself that you’re not ready to retire.

I’m not there yet, I guess. “I still have a lot of respect and love for the game.I want to be around this team.

This team is looking great with the younger guys now coming in, older guys.So this is very exciting, the whole thing.

I pushed myself.I had a lot of motivation also, because the team is looking good.

I want to be part of it longer.�...