Los Angeles (AFP)

"My goal N.1 at the moment: to walk alone": Tiger Woods, seriously injured on the road three months ago, spoke of his "painful" rehabilitation, without talking about a possible return to competition, in a brief interview with Golf Digest.

“My rehabilitation keeps me busy. I am doing my routine exercises every day and I am focusing on my # 1 goal right now: walking on my own. I take one step at a time,” Woods said in this very first and short interview given since the accident of February 23, which occurred in California, which caused him several open fractures to the right leg.

Injuries "which have absolutely nothing to do" in terms of pain compared to what he may have suffered during his career, he who notably underwent five back operations including a perilous fusion of the lumbar vertebrae in 2017.

"I understand better what the rehabilitation process involves because of my past injuries, but this one is more painful than anything I have known," he said.

"I had so much support from people, it helped me tremendously," added the winner of 15 Grand Slam titles, who on the other hand refused to answer the question of whether he could replay at golf.

On Tuesday, he reappeared posing with crutches, but without an orthopedic boot, replaced by compression tights on his right leg, alongside a cancer child in a photo posted on the latter's Instagram account.

At the beginning of April, the police had established that the golfer was driving at a "dangerous speed", close to the double of the authorized limit, during his accident.

He had been operated on for a long time, in particular for multiple open fractures in his right leg which required him to insert a metal rod into the tibia and screws to consolidate the bones of the foot and ankle.

Last week, U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker said he hoped to see Tiger Woods recovered enough to serve as the captain's assistant during the U.S.-European clash at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin in September.

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