The Local Knowlege

Woods injury "not career threatening"

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Comments

We now know why Tiger Woods called the 108th U.S. Open his greatest achievement ever. Woods won his 14th major championship with a stress fracture to his left tibia and anterior cruciate ligament damage that will require season-ending surgery, he reported today on his website.

What Woods did not discuss were the long-term affects of the injury; some of which is obvious, some undetermined. "If he wants to go after [Jack] Nicklaus' record, he'll need a good ACL reconstruction to do it," said Dr. Jim Bradley, team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and a foremost expert on knee surgery. "But this is not career threatening."

It may not be career threatening, but the general message is, it's career interrupting and perhaps career deterring. This would be Woods' second knee surgery in two months and his fourth since 1994. The more operations, the more chance for arthritis, so the window for breaking Nicklaus' 18-major record may not last what was anticipated from a super-human athlete like Woods.

Woods revealed the stress fracture or stress reaction occurred while training following April's knee surgery. According to Bradley, the standard time missed by an NFL player with a similar injury is six weeks. But what makes this a long-term absence from golf for Woods is the ACL repair and rehabilitation. According to sources, he was fitted for an ACL or "uploader" brace two weeks before the U.S. Open, in order to take stress off that part of his tender knee. "You knew after he winced one time and started walking with a flexed leg gait that he was protecting his posterior lateral corner," Bradley observed. "I don't know how he did it. He has got a great mind. He knew it was going to hurt like hell."

Woods proved his will by fighting through the pain at Torrey Pines, but he faces a longer battle now as he manages proper rehabilitation with eventual mental roadblocks. Ernie Els is the most famous modern-day golfer to require ACL surgery. The South African tore up his knee in a boating accident in 2005, came back after surgery in three months, and won almost immediately. But according to swing coaches David Leadbetter and Butch Harmon, Els still favors the knee.

"It's like rebooting a computer," Bradley said. "In pro football, we say we get a guy back (from ACL reconstruction) in six months, but in fact, they're really not right until they go through a full season. It's almost a year's time before they're back to where they were beforehand."

-- Tim Rosaforte

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Archived Comments (5) Click to expand

Are there any editors left in the world? "What Woods did not discuss were the long-term affects of the injury; some of which is obvious, some undetermined."

"Affects" and "is obvious"? Not to mention the "career-threating" typo in the link to the story on the main page.

I know the reporters are all trying to outdo each other with the latest information on this story, but take five minutes to proofread!

Posted by eighmeagh June 18, 2008 1:19 PM

I am skeptical about the Tiger Woods medical report. It seems more logical that he developed the stress fractures in the course of playing and needed something stonger than a OTC med(as reported on NBC)to get through the round. Supporting this notion, why was the announcement made on Wedneday if the information was already available? More likely,he had an MRI on Tuesday or Wednesday that revealed the new findings.

In any event,rather than be hailed as hero, I belive that he should say that he make a mistake (he should not have played under either circumstance) and be an example to the youth to not play against medical advice.

Posted by RobertJ June 21, 2008 11:03 AM

And there vanishes our hope of 2008 being one of the greatest seasons ever for a player in the history of Golf. What promised to be a near unbelievable season is now quickly fading away into a “what could have been” kind of season.

Tiger really did seem like he was on to something special in 2008 right from the very beginning. Little did we know that in his quest for the U.S. Open he would virtually rule himself out for the rest of the season. Was it worth it ? Well, I guess yes. With players like Tiger you know that more often then not their will power , grit and determination pulls them through most situations and I suspect once he had set himself the target of returning for the U.S. Open there was very little chance that he was going to let anything prevent him from doing so. He gave us a superb performance( not by Tiger standards but definitely in terms of fighting it out). Some reports say now he will only back in February at the same venue where he won the U.S. Open.

http://www.golfswingsecretsrevealed.com/blog/2008/06/21/golf-tries-to-assess-impact-of-tiger%e2%80%99s-absence/

Posted by andybrown June 23, 2008 10:06 AM

The latest arthroscopic surgery that Tiger had was done with the hope of allowing him to finish the 2008 season. The Doctors knew of the ACL damage in 2007. Because he overdid his rehab he created the stress fractures in the tibia. He also knew that playing might damage the knee further but not to a point that reconstructive surgery could not repair, which he knew he had coming anyway. I thought it was a gutsy week and again shows how tough this guy is mentally. Imagine trying to concentrate on your job while your left leg feels like it's on fire. You might make a mistake or two. I applaud his decision and look forward to his return. People we are looking at the best to ever pick up a club, period. Enjoy it!

Posted by UtahFriday June 24, 2008 7:09 AM

The TW PR/Spin Machine is fully operational...

Saying that an ACL reconstruction - the culmination of over 10 years knee issues with multiple prior surgeries - is not career threatening is like saying one is not in danger of falling when jumping out of an airplane.

The knee issues have already impacted his career, and the current situation is worse than anything thus far, so how can it not be career threatening?

Yes, Tiger is obviously a tough guy and, certainly the knee hasn't stopped him from compiling the most impressive golf record for someone his age in history. But in addition to missing the remainder of the majors this year, Woods may end up limiting his playing and practice regime some when he's finished rehab-ing this knee. His swing destroyed his native ACL, and there's no reason it can't destroy the reconstructed one, and Woods and his doctors know this.

Maybe it's the difference between retiring with 21 majors instead of 26, but if you don't think Woods is in danger of much worse, you're buying a bill of goods from his other doctors...the spin doctors.

Posted by 86general June 26, 2008 11:08 AM
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