First of all, to say I am gutted by the recent news is an understatement and wish him all the best. Personally as a physician with considerable experience with knee injuries I have no doubt he will make a speedy and full recovery. Granted his knee will suffer almost certainly later in his life but it will get him through to his goal and the majors will keep on coming.

In light of what information we so far have I do have some concerns related to the cause of the injury however. There is no doubt that well conditioned athletes can do very well without an acl which has clearly been the case for some time. Well conditioned quads and specific training can offload the knee and stabilise it but I question whether or not a repair of the acl should have been done sooner following the acute rupture. Without the acl, regardless of conditioning, there is always the risk of further damage to cartilage and menisci hence his return to the OR in April. Reconstructed knees on the other hand do extremely well and I wonder what was holding him back from getting this done.

The other question is why was he so intense with regard to his rehab following surgery in April. From what I now gather, the stress fractures were a direct result of his intense training to get back in shape. It is well documented that when up with baby Sam in the middle of the night he would do 600 leg presses with her on his legs to 'rock' her back to sleep! With an 8 week old myself I was in awe! However, in hind sight there is no doubt he was excessive. With this in mind, surely someone from 'Team Tiger' should have highlighted this and issued the world class advice he deserves.

In light of these inuries I am now sure these issues will be addressed. The acl will be repaired with a graft and the stress fractures which are not career threatening in themselves will settle through his recovery period. After last weeks events I have never felt more certain of a Tiger win come next years Masters and a sizeable wager is sure to be made..........rest assured, the legend will march on!

I, too, am gutted that Tiger is off the Tour as a result of his injuries, surgery and rehab. My internal antenna went on full alert when I found out the nature of his knee injury as I, too, had damage to the ACL in my left knee several years ago. The grafts done to the ACL went well in my case and the Doctor made sure I didn't do anything silly by putting me in a full leg cast. In your opinion, don't you think Tiger's knee will, also, be immobilized in a cast?

I don't profess to being a well conditioned athlete, but my recovery was by the book and it still took almost a year for everything to return to normal...muscles, knee, flexilbilty...then the rebuilding and maintence of the muscle still goes on to this day. The physical part of the surgery, rehab went along well and finally the Doc said "Go out my son and lead a normal life again"

I was thrilled that he pronounced me fixed, but I gotta tell you the mental part was the hurdle that I didn't expect. Trusting my rebuilt knee took ages to overcome. There was no pain to deal with when I played golf, but I struggled to believe in that knee and swing free again. I watched as Ernie Els went through the same type of thing I did with the mental side of things after he injured his knee. With Tiger's mental toughness, I am sure he will blow right by that confidence thing about his knee, however; there may be that sliver of doubt that might alter how he swings for a while. My handicap went up by 7 shots while being completely healed and that was a horrible blow to me. Things all worked out and the handicap came back down, but it took a while to climb out of the hell hole I put myself in mentally. Whew!!

I've had two ACL reconstructions both on the right knee. Both took about 9 months to rehab but like Goodsie said, I'm still fighting it to this day and my last surgery was in '99. I can say that they don't put the leg in a cast and haven't done so in some time. The prefered way is a soft brace because rehab starts the day of the surgery. Its important to get the flexibilty back to the knee right away. Its not hard rehab mind you but you do need to bend it. Talk about pain!! I never want to go through that again. And I myself have a high pain threshold but it was painful the first few days after surgery and having to use a towel to pull on the leg to bend it.

Not sure how Tiger will do. It'll all depend upon how much damage is done. I'm almost postive that there will be some tweaks here and there to his swing when he does come back. His ACL is on the left and I'm not real sure which is the "better" injury; that is to the right or left. From my experience on the right its very tough because one tends to load up on the right side. I've worked extremely hard in the years since to get back to form. In Tiger's case I'm sure he'll come back very dominant and I believe his swing might even benefit from it. I don't think he'll have the length ever again like he used to, but I do believe his shots will be tighter and his accuracy much improved.

We'll just have to wait and see The one thing I'm not enjoying right now is all the commentary that golf is dead until he comes back and what happens to it if he doesn't come back strong. Hey, golf was there before Tiger and it'll be there after Tiger. Sure he's had a huge impact but the core golfers will always be there. Its the fickle fan, the casual fan that'll come and go.