Woods: Successful surgery

It will be nice to finally have a healthy leg. The doctors have assured me that my long-term health will be a hell of a lot better than it's been over the last decade. I'm really looking forward to that.

Tiger Woods
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Tiger Woods claims his troublesome left knee had been sore for his entire professional career and is confident recent surgery will see him return fitter than ever before.

The world number one will miss the rest of the season following the reconstructive knee procedure he underwent following his remarkable triumph at the US Open.

Woods is still unsure how long he will be on the sidelines and is currently unable to put any weight on the left knee.

However, he is in no doubt he can silence those who have raised questions about his long-term fitness and expects to be in peak physical condition on his comeback.

"My left knee has been sore for ten to 12 years," Woods said ahead of the AT&T National tournament he hosts every year in Maryland.

"It will be nice to finally have a healthy leg. The doctors have assured me that my long-term health will be a hell of a lot better than it's been over the last decade. I'm really looking forward to that.

"As of right now, I'm in a brace, straight leg brace, letting everything kind of calm down and quiet down for three weeks post-op.

"Then from there I can start some weight bearing and then gradually start putting a little bit of weight on this thing and flexing it.

"I will be on crutches for those three weeks. Basically, non-weight bearing.

Unsure of return date

"As far as long-term, I really don't know. We have to see how this thing heals.

"Everyone heals at a different rate. Some people are back to playing sports in six months, some are nine, some are 12. So to be honest with you, no one really knows until we start the rehab process."

Woods explained that doctors used tendon from his right hamstring to reconstruct his knee, but revealed he was unlikely to attend the AT&T National this week having been advised to avoid plane travel by his doctors.

"They did take a graft, basically a tendon out of my right hamstring, and implemented it into my left knee and made it to my new ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) and they fixed a little bit of cartilage damage I had in there, and that was about it," he said.

"Flying, unfortunately, swells up my leg pretty good. When I flew home from the procedure, it ballooned up a little bit.

"But who knows? I don't really listen to doctors all that well, anyway!"