Tiger Woods Will Not Play Golf For The Rest Of The Year, Due To His Back Injury — Did The Latest Surgery Help?
Tiger Woods won’t be playing golf for the rest of the year. His back injury, which has been nagging the player for quite some time, forced the player to undergo a second operation. Notwithstanding the complexity, the surgery is said to have gone well, and Woods is on the mend.
Despite having to sit out the fourth quarter of this year and not having the opportunity to play golf, Tiger Woods does have something to be optimistic about, reported Bleacher Report. There is a very high probability that the second operation the player underwent to address a nagging back injury will allow the player to return to his dominant former self, confirmed Dr. Andrew Hecht, chief of spine surgery at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital.
“Return to play for an elite athlete is around 90 percent, that they can return to their elite level of competition. The prognosis is very good.”
Tiger Woods, 39, had revealed that he had undergone a second microdiscectomy surgery, similar to one he had on his back in March, 2014. He added that he was scuttling the rest of his 2015 playing plans with a hope to return to the links in early 2016, reported Yahoo. Elaborating on Woods’ condition, Dr. Hecht added risk of recurrence of a herniated disc is rather minute. Incidentally, it was a herniated disc that initially led to a pinched nerve for Woods. The pinched nerve resulted in excruciating pain for the star athlete of golf.
Tiger Woods will turn 40 in December, just underwent his second back surgery in 17 months and has had various other major injury issues…
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) September 18, 2015
Working through the pain, Tiger Woods has attempted to stay on top of his game. However, his second surgery was a virtual certainty. Golf is a game which requires a very agile backbone, needed for the powerful swing as well as a super-soft putt across the greens. The discs in our vertebrae act as shock absorbers and provide the relevant flexibility. Even a minute misalignment of the discs can cause back pain. While medication does offer momentary relief, surgery is often advised to remedy the situation and ensure correct alignment.
Come back healthy buddy. RT @TigerWoods: Just had successful back surgery. I’ve come back from … http://t.co/l0JoLD2K4k
— Zach Johnson (@ZachJohnsonPGA) September 18, 2015
In case of Tiger Woods, the misaligned disc was damaged, causing contact with a nerve. Additionally, it was causing him to experience pain that radiated from his back and shot through his leg. Needless to say, such pain will interfere with his golf swing.
Though Tiger Woods hasn’t been much forthcoming about the details about his back pain, he did indicate that his second surgery involved removal of a small portion of the damaged disc. The doctors have assured that his age won’t be a factor and the surgery went well, indicating the player will soon return to playing professional golf, just not in this year.
[Image Credit: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images]
