BOSTON — Charlie McAvoy’s face is leaner. Some of the muscles in his neck have waned. He is speaking with a lisp. He estimated he lost almost 20 pounds.

All of this is the aftermath of the linear jaw fracture the Boston Bruins defenseman suffered on Nov. 15 when he was struck by a slap shot by the Montreal Canadiens’ Noah Dobson. McAvoy has missed the last nine games. He required surgery in the days following the injury. He has been on a liquid diet.

“Right here, all the way down,” McAvoy, speaking for the first time since the injury, said Friday while pointing to the left side of his face under his mouth. “Some displacement. Lost a lot of teeth on the bottom. I’ll save you the visual. Just take my word for it.”

McAvoy practiced with the team at Warrior Ice Arena on Friday, wearing a red non-contact jersey and a full face shield. He can still feel vibrations in his jaw when he moves and speaks.

“It’s a weird feeling,” said McAvoy, who usually plays at 211 pounds. “It’s been one of the weirdest injuries I’ve ever had. The feeling of having so much trauma in your mouth; it’s a wild feeling. But we’re doing everything we can to get back fast. I’m healing really good. Hopefully not too much longer.”

Doctors have told him it will take six weeks from the date of his surgery until his jaw is healed. He cannot eat solid food until then.

“There’s stops we’ve got to cross,” McAvoy said of when he could return to play. “Getting weight on, getting energy. Feeling good is the biggest thing. You want to be out there and not feel like you’re going to pass out. There’s that. There’s getting cleared by the doctor. There’s X-rays. There’s certain checkmarks we have to get by before we can get back in a game.”

The force of Dobson’s slap shot knocked McAvoy onto his back. He knew immediately that he had suffered significant damage.

“I knew we were in trouble there,” McAvoy said. “I had never taken one before. But you don’t take a slap shot to the jaw … I knew right away I was in trouble.”

Being on a liquid diet has been McAvoy’s most significant adjustment. Ice cream, milkshakes, smoothies and soup have made up his rotation. McAvoy tried blending chicken and vegetables, but cut that short after being dissatisfied with the result.

“That was just a non-starter,” McAvoy said with a smile. “It’s terrible. Soups have really been my go-to, and smoothies to try and get protein. Because food blended up, it’s not meant to be eaten that way.”

McAvoy’s challenge is to regain strength and weight while not eating solid food. He is cleared to train and practice. He did not say how many more pounds he has to gain before he’s back to his usual weight.

“You feel weak. Energy’s tough to come by,” McAvoy said. “I lost close to 20 pounds in the first week and a half there. It’s a shock to your body. I’m trying to get it back now while getting out there and doing more than I’ve done in a while and trying to get energy highs. We’re trying to play catch-up a little bit.”

McAvoy has no goals and 14 assists in 19 games while averaging a team-high 23 minutes, 46 seconds of ice time per appearance. The Bruins are 4-5-0 without their No. 1 defenseman.

“We miss him every day,” coach Marco Sturm said. “Just to have him around puts a smile on everyone’s face, including us coaches. He’s one of the best defensemen in the league, I think. To see him hurt like that, it hurt all of us. It’s why we can’t wait to have him back.”

Sturm has not put a timeline on McAvoy’s return. That he can visually see a difference in McAvoy signals that the defenseman has a way to go.

“He looks like a skinny guy out there,” Sturm said with a smile. “Maybe it’s because of his mask. That’s why we have to be patient with him. We do not want to rush him to come back. We just want to make sure he’s 100 percent mentally, physically. His weight has got to be at the right spot. Otherwise, it would not be fair to him.”