Will Tiger Woods recover from his car accident?
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Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP / SIPA
Victim of a road accident Tuesday, Tiger Woods underwent multiple fractures to his right leg.
While he had managed to overcome serious back problems to return to his highest level in 2019, here he is facing a new challenge.
At 45, the chances of him making it are slim, but the golfing world wants to believe it.
The news is rather reassuring.
Especially when you see the condition of his car, the entire front of which was completely crushed under the violence of the shock.
Tiger Woods, the victim of a serious traffic accident Tuesday morning in the southern suburbs of Los Angeles, escaped with multiple open fractures to his right leg.
Barely extricated and operated on at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, he had a metal rod placed in his tibia and screws to strengthen the bones of the foot and ankle, the chief medical officer said, Anish Mahajan, in a statement posted on the golfer's Twitter account.
Tiger Woods' vehicle after his accident, February 24, 2021. - Ringo HW Chiu / AP / SIPA
More fear than harm, so it seems.
"He is awake, conscious and resting", assured his entourage, while a police officer present at the scene of the accident had estimated that he had "had a lot of luck to get out alive".
This is because the Tiger is the resilient type.
We're not going to tell you the whole story again, but still.
Lynched by all of America in the late 2000s after revelations about his private life, lost to golf for much of the next decade after four back operations - including arthrodesis, a painful fusion of vertebrae -, Woods made one of the most improbable comebacks in the history of sport in 2019, winning the Augusta Masters.
His 15th Grand Slam title… Eleven years after the last one.
"His relationship to the ground may change"
And this time?
It is the question with many dollars which inevitably agitates the medium of golf.
From a medical point of view, already, we will have to observe the extent of the damage once the fractures have consolidated, in about three months.
“His right ankle will have to regain mobility, that's the most worrying thing.
It will be long, because it will go through a lot of rehabilitation, explains Doctor Olivier Rouillon, doctor of the French Golf Federation.
Tiger hits hard, even though he's not 25 anymore.
In the jargon, it is said to "jump", which requires flexibility and mobility.
"
At 45, the man who revolutionized golf will have to be patient.
Again.
And hope not to have lost all his marks when he has the right to hit the ball again.
“His relationship to the ground may change, he may never find the same sensations in his strikes, said Patrice Barquez, players' agent and coach.
Thomas Levet, who was injured in 2011 in the fibula, said that it was one of the injuries from which we recovered the most difficult, especially vis-à-vis the relation to the ground and the taking of support.
"
He may need to change the way he typed, as he did when he came back the first time.
But also to know if this accident did not cause too much collateral damage in his back, necessarily weakened.
Moreover, the Tiger had recently returned to the pool table, for the fifth time, and had expressed in the program "Golf + Le Mag" on Canal last weekend of his doubts about participation in the Masters, in April.
"When he wants to play golf, Tiger always finds solutions"
“I have only one back, the leeway is low.
For the moment I do not know the rest.
The next step is to have an MRI to see if my back disc has healed and if we can move on, ”he said.
“I found him skeptical, and above all physically marked,” says Arnaud Verhaeghe, consultant for the encrypted channel and who participated in the show.
The delay will therefore lengthen further.
But by how much?
A few months, a few years?
“He showed us that he was able to adapt.
But for the moment, knowing what will happen after this accident is fiction, believes Patrice Barquez.
When he feels like playing golf, Tiger always finds ways to come back, but results have to follow.
Considering his age, we are a little afraid that this time he will not be able to come back to the top.
"
Two records as motivation?
The doubt is all the more allowed that since his crazy spring-summer 2019 period, Woods seems to decline again.
Doctor Rouillon reminds us that we are not dealing with just anyone.
“He's an exceptional champion, at an exceptional level.
It's Tiger Woods.
"Mister everyone" could not, but he has a chance to be able to play again at the highest level.
"
Arnaud Verhaeghe, if he waits to know the exact consequences of the accident, is also one of the optimists: “He still has two records to chase, the 83 victories on the PGA Tour [currently at 82, tied with the legendary Sam Snead], and the 18 Majors of Jack Niklaus [he is at 15].
He plays less, but he keeps that in mind, and if he can, he will do anything to get them.
He remains an extraordinary champion, and if there is one who can lie the odds, it's him.
I still believe in.
"
Trump and Obama for once agree
On this long road to a potential return, the Tiger can in any case count on two strong supports.
"I have no doubt about it, he will come back," said Donald Trump on Tuesday, who for a few weeks has no longer been obliged to interrupt his rounds of golf because of supposedly important meetings for the country.
Barack Obama also went there with his little word of encouragement.
"If we've learned anything in all these years, it's never to take Tiger out of the game," he wrote on Twitter.
Perhaps the only subject on which the two former presidents of the United States agree.
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