Tiger Woods: His Injuries Can Be Rehabilitated

Special from The Players Championship Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

According to Jeff Hendra, Physical Therapist for the PGA Tour, an injury similar to the one Tiger Woods has will not keep him from returning to good play in the future.

While Hendra cannot refer to or specifically discuss any condition of any PGA Tour player, he did explain the nature of the kinds of injuries that Woods has said he has in a general way.

The achilles strain, Hendra explained, can hinder the action of the knee.  With the amount of force and twisting that any golfer puts on the knee closest to the target line—the left for a right-handed player and the right for a left-handed player—a strained or tight achilles will not allow normal movement of the knee. It puts strain on the medial collateral ligament (MCL), which is on the inside of the leg at the knee, attaching the tibia to the femur (lower leg bone to thigh bone).       

He said that with therapy and strengthening exercises, most people can rehabilitate the action of the knee by strengthening the muscles on the front of the thigh, the quadriceps, and by strengthening the hamstrings, the muscles in back of the thigh.  The rehabilitation is in stages from isometric exercises, moving up to other activities designed to provide muscular strength.  

By resting for a week or two and then doing proper rehab, Hendra said that an MCL strain can become a non-factor for someone playing golf. The muscles around the knee can become strong enough so that it is almost like the knee was not injured.  In addition wearing a brace on the knee can provide extra support.