CALGARY - Recently retired National Hockey League star Theoren Fleury says he was sexually abused for years by his former junior hockey coach, the Canadian media reported on Friday.

The former all-star, who represented his native Canada in two Olympics, made the accusations in a new tell-all book "Playing With Fire" which is due out Wednesday.

Excerpts of the book have appeared online and the Canadian Canwest newspaper chain is expected to publish details from the book by author Kirstie McLellan Day on Saturday, the Calgary Herald reported.

Fleury, who spent 11 seasons with the Calgary Flames, accused Graham James of repeated sexual abuse while Fleury played for James' junior hockey team in Canada.

James was jailed for three and half years after another former player of his, Sheldon Kennedy, told police he had been sexually assaulted over a number of years while both were with the Western Hockey League's Swift Current Broncos franchise in the late 1980s. James was convicted of sexually assaulting two players some 350 times over 10 years. The identity of the second player was never made public.

Kennedy told the Herald that he and Fleury talked about the abuse from James just once when the two were sharing some beers.

"I had to go to Graham's on Tuesdays and Thursdays," Kennedy said. "Theo might have been Monday's and Wednesday's.

"Theo and I have never been real, real, real tight. We've always had that kind of underlying secret.

"I talked to him one night, a lot of years ago. We probably weren't in the best of shape but at least we had the chat."

The 41-year-old Fleury attempted a comeback with the Flames this season but was cut during training camp.

His all-star career was eventually sidelined by drug use and alcohol.

He competed for Canada in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics winning a gold medal in Salt Lake City.