Tiger Woods’ Fifth Back Surgery
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Tiger Woods, the winner of 15 major championships and 82 PGA tour events, has had five back surgeries. The most recent surgery was performed in early 2021.
Before the 2021 surgery, Tiger had undergone a successful surgery in April 2017. The surgery was intended to alleviate chronic pain in his back. Tiger has had persistent back pain for many years.
During the 2017 spine surgery, his medical team said chronic back pain was due to a severely narrowed lower back disc. The condition caused severe pain in his back and leg. Even after undergoing three previous surgeries, the pain was not going away.
To resolve the problem, during the 2017 surgery, the surgeons replaced the damaged disc. Also, the doctors re-elevated the collapsed disc space to help in relieving pressure on the nerve. After removing the damaged discs and reducing the stress, his back was able to heal gradually.
In 2018, after the successful surgery in 2017, Tiger Woods participated in 3 golfing events. However, in December 2019, Tiger complained of back pain during PNC.
In January 2021, Tiger announced he had undergone the fifth back surgery. In this post, we’ll focus on this most recent back surgery.
Tiger Woods’ Fifth Back Surgery
Tiger Woods back surgery 2021 was his fifth. The surgery was successful, and he was hopeful he would resume his sports activities soon. After the fifth surgery, Tiger was focused on healing first, as advised by his medical advisors. Although he could not tell the exact time he would have fully recovered; he was willing to resume his everyday life soon without the risk of further neurological deficit or pain from nerve root compression.
However, in February 2021, Tiger was involved in a car crash that caused severe leg injuries.
Notably, despite the accident, all hope is not lost for this well-known athlete. He looks forward with excitement to getting out there again once fully recovered. One fact about all great athletes is they always seem to bounce back. Tiger Woods will jump back soon and defend his position in his golfing career.
Tiger Woods History Of Back Injuries And Treatments During His Golfing Career
Tiger Woods has been plagued with back injuries for years. His first documented incident was in 2014 when he had back surgery and took a break from the game to recover. Although he continued playing, he injured his back again during one of his tournaments, forcing him to withdraw and go to physical therapy.
In 2015 Tiger once again experienced lower-back pain and underwent two consecutive surgeries. The first one was in Sept. 2015. Tiger underwent a microdiscectomy to remove a disc fragment. After the successful surgery, Tiger was hopeful of returning to his everyday life in 2016.
Notably, in October 2015, Tiger underwent follow-up surgery. After those two surgeries, Tiger missed or withdrew from the most significant competitions due to back pain. In different occurrences, Tiger cited back pain as the reason he was not ready for a professional golfing competition yet.
Some of the famous golf competitions Tiger missed included the Masters, Safeway Open, Genesis Open, and Honda Classic events.
Although at times, he felt he was ready for a major competition, he mainly withdrew midway. For instance, in Feb 2017, Tiger Woods withdrew from Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Notably, despite Tiger taking a break from provisional sports to focus on his recovery, he still trained.
Tiger Woods, since he had his first back surgery in 2014, his lower back pain has been steadily increasing over the years. Tiger has had to make a choice: continue playing at a high level but risk long-term damage to himself or retire from professional golf altogether.
Although he has missed the most critical golfing events due to his back pain condition and has withdrawn from several events after complaining of back spasms, retiring from professional golfing is not an option. He intends to resume his professional golfing activities once he is fully recovered.
Final Words
With different causes of back pain, Tiger has had a challenging golfing career. However, there is hope that all will be fine. As he has successfully been making comebacks in the past, after fixing his back condition, there is hope that Tiger will come back soon.
If you are looking for spine surgery services, including Tiger Woods’s services, you can contact Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery of Texas. Despite how many back surgeries have Tiger had, he has always bounced back; hence you will bounce back too.
