TIGER Woods has less than a 50 per cent chance of ever playing golf again following his horror car crash, a medical expert has claimed.
The golf ace, 45, suffered gruesome injuries to his leg after the devastating crash on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles.
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Woods was pulled pulled from the wreckage of an SUV he was driving on the border of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes before being transferred to hospital by paramedics.
Doctors said he suffered "comminuted" fractures in the upper and lower parts of the tibia and fibula – meaning the breaks had led to bone splintering.
They fitted metal rods, screws and pins to his shattered right shinbone and calf bone following the crash.
But foot and ankle specialist Nick Cullen, of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust in London, today warned there is a strong chance the golf ace may never play professionally again.
'VERY SERIOUS'
He told the Daily Telegraph: “It’s a very serious injury.
“It’s serious because the bone’s been broken in multiple levels and has broken through the skin. The break has gone into the ankle, so it affects the joints of the ankle as well.
“This would probably be classified as a limb-threatening injury.
“I don’t think you’d be talking about amputating this immediately but that’s the potential.”
It comes as:
- Tiger Woods cheats death and is left with horror leg injuries after car careers off road in LA
- Tiger's mom Tida told his pal in tearful phone call that star would survive crash
- Golf star may never get mobility back and narrowly avoided having leg amputated, says doc
- Tiger ‘was NOT drunk or on meds’ & he won’t face charges as cops say black box will be pulled
- His family fear he’ll be hooked on prescription pills again after horror crash
- Crash site is notorious accident blackspot with its own SAFETY NET after string of fatal smashes
- Neighbor hailed a ‘hero’ for calling 911 and helping to lift golf star from mangled wreck
Dr Cullen said that, to make a full recovery, Woods must regain a "near-normal range of movement in his ankle and foot".
He continued: "Very often, after the breaks of the bones here, even if the bones heal up, there’s quite a lot of damage to the muscles and the tissues.
“I would say he has less than a 50 per cent chance of playing professional golf again.”
Woods was yesterday said to be "awake, responsive and recovering in his hospital room" as footage of him emerged behind the wheel which was filmed just before the crash.
However, NBC News senior medical correspondent Dr. John Torres told TODAY on Wednesday that the road to recovery is not looking easy – and the star may never get his mobility back.
"He has around six weeks of recovery just from the fractures," the doctor said.
"If he had to get that ankle fused, or if he had any big procedures done to that ankle that are going to limit mobility, that's going to take longer to recover.
"He truly might never get back that mobility he had before," he said, "which could definitely impact the way he plays."
Torres also insisted that leg injuries are "a true [emergency]," because "pressure starts building up because of swelling in that part of the leg, and it builds up to such a high point, it cuts off circulation, and it causes nerve damage if it's not taken care of quickly."
"So what surgeons do is they go in and basically release that pressure by opening up the muscle, exposing it to the outside so that it has a way to relieve the pressure, and that lets the circulation flow, that lets the nerve not be damaged."
The doctor then warned: "The big concern was amputation because if he doesn't get that done quickly, and by quickly, I mean within an hour or so, he could be looking at an amputation of that leg."
Meanwhile, the star's orthopedic surgeon said he had suffered a "very high energy fracture".
Dr. Scott Boden told CNBC: "We know that because it was an open fracture, meaning that the bone penetrated the skin, at least temporarily, and that it was broken in multiple places, that this was a very high energy fracture, and that makes it a little bit more difficult to heal."
A leading golf coach, Pete Cowen, also told the Mirror that he predicts Woods is in for a long recovery.
"The main [thing] is that he's alive but he's 45 and he's going to have an 18-month rehab I would say," said Cowen.
"A lot of people who have compound fractures don't get the use of their legs back that well. You can definitely adapt but this a tough one.
"There's not only the playing of the shots but the walking. Five miles up hill and dale – God knows what that will be like for him."
Woods had emergency surgery on Tuesday night after firefighters had to cut him from wreckage at an accident hotspot in Rancho Palos Verdes shortly after 7.15am on Tuesday.
Woods reportedly hit a raised central reservation at "speed", smashed through a street sign, hit a tree and then flipped a $50,000 Genesis GV80 SUV several times.
The 15-time major winner cheated death as the life-saving airbags deployed in his Geneis courtesy car after it careered off the road at high speed and flipped several times just after 7am, LA officials said.
It has been reported he was running around 30 minutes late to meet Drew Brees and Justin Herbert for a lesson and photoshoot at the time.
One source said when Woods entered his car to get away, he had to wait as another car blocked his while it loaded luggage.
Once the car moved, Woods "took off fast", say the reports.
Woods, 45, was lucid after the horrific incident but had “no recollection of the crash itself” when quizzed by investigators, the LA County Sheriff said last night.
He also had no idea of the extent of his injuries following the devastating crash, and cops have cleared him of being intoxicated at the wheel.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva told CNN the crash was “purely an accident”, adding: “He was not drunk.
'REMAINS AN ACCIDENT'
“Definitely we can throw that one out. There was no evidence of any impairment.
“We don’t contemplate any charges whatsoever in this crash. This remains an accident.”
Mr Villanueva added that the “speed involved” and the “driver’s inattention” were both possible explanations for the crash.
However, he said that the investigation team would need to pull the "black box" from Woods' car in order to reach a conclusion on what caused the crash.
LA county Sheriff's Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, who responded to the crash, told CNN that the seat belt Woods was wearing may have saved his life.
He said: "I do think the fact that he was wearing a seat belt and that the vehicle safety features worked as designed by the manufacturer likely resulted in either reducing his injury or saving his life."
On Wednesday morning, Woods' girlfriend was seen visiting him in hospital after his emergency surgery.
Erica Herman was pictured arriving at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with a man believed to be Tiger's longtime caddy, Joe LaCava.
Woods underwent a fifth operation of his fused back just last month, and admitted on Sunday he had no idea whether he would be fit to challenge for a sixth Masters title in April.
However this is now, almost definitely, not going to happen.
His legs already bear the scars of five more operations for knee problems – and surgery to repair a torn Achilles – and he has also sustained injuries to his calf, shoulder and neck.
And this is not the first time Woods has had to be rescued from the wreckage of his car.
He was also hospitalized after smashing into a tree and a fire hydrant near his Florida home in 2009.
And in August 2017 Woods was arrested by police in Florida who found him ‘spaced out’ on a cocktail of pain-killers in his car – another consequence of his crippling back problems.
Woods has performed miracles in the past, famously winning the 2008 US Open on one leg.
He went into the event with two stress fractures and a ruptured cruciate ligament that required surgery the day after his victory.
He also defied medical logic by claiming his fifth Masters victory in 2019, after having two discs in his spine fused together.
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