After Tiger Woods suffered serious injuries and multiple fractures in a car accident on February 23, everybody seems to be asking one question: Is Woods done? People are desperate to know whether he will be able to play golf again or not.
On February 23, Woods’s car underwent a terrible car accident 30 miles away from Los Angeles. He was taken to Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. On February 24, Chief Medical Officer of Harbour UCLA Medical Center reported that the golfer suffered serious injuries to his right lower leg and additional injuries to his right ankle and foot. His leg injuries were treated via an emergency surgical procedure. Woods suffered comminuted open fractures i.e. his shinbone was splintered and its fragments protruded out of his skin. This caused severe damage to his muscles and tendons. His leg muscles were greatly swollen and surgeons had to cut into the thick tissue covering his leg muscles to alleviate pressure and enable blood circulation.
This is not the first time his return to golf has been called into question. Woods has previously been through many career-threatening medical conditions. In 2009, he crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree and suffered serious injuries. Woods has had four back surgeries since 2014 and was still rehabbing and recovering from his fifth one at the time of his recent accident. Right now, Woods is at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for rehab and recovery and according to a fellow PGA tour star, Tiger believes he’ll be back home soon.
We have previously seen many sportsmen return to the game after suffering from similar accidents. Paul George got back to the NBA after getting his bones treated with screws and a stabilizing metal rod. Ben Hogan returned to golf decades after an auto accident. Alex Smith got back to football after a leg-break. However, Woods’s situation is not very comparable to other athletes in history due to his pre-existing back problems that are very likely to aggravate his current medical condition and decrease his likelihood to get back to the sport, according to medical experts.
Dr. Bill Mallon, previously a PGA golfer and now an orthopedic surgeon, told the Insider “I think Tiger can play golf again.” According to Dr. Malloon Woods definitely has a difficult journey of recovery ahead of him but he’s positive that Woods will recover within a year.
Woods is a right-handed player and according to Dr. Mallon, he would have been in more trouble if his left leg had been injured as his right leg fundamentally serves to support the body and doesn’t face any torque during golf swings.
Although medical experts are greatly mixed in their views regarding Wood’s recovery, most of them are not so optimistic about Woods getting back to his competitive peak in golf. It’s a long list of injuries. And a long list of injuries follows a long list of potential outcomes. Woods’s current medical condition and its prognosis definitely calls into question his ability to become athletic again. However, it’s too soon to jump to conclusions.
