"It's looking more and more like Daymond Langkow has played his final game in the NHL.

A Flames official tells the Sun it's now about "a 50-50 proposition" as to whether the 34-year-old can come back from the neck injury he sustained late last season when a slap shot on an awkward play did damage to his spinal cord.

The latest setback came last week when Langkow and the team's doctors decided to shut him down after he experienced numbness below the waist during heavy exertion.

"Zero progress then a step backwards," GM Darryl Sutter said of the decision to take Langkow off the ice and shut down all exercise last week.

"We'll try this, and your guess is as good as mine. We're eight months into it and here we are -- that's a concern."

Langkow, the team's second-highest paid forward at $4.5 million, has yet another year left on his contract next season.

The Flames have been concerned all along about Langkow's lack of progress, which helps explain why they picked up centres Olli Jokinen and Brendan Morrison."