McIlroy: Woods has a ‘long road ahead’ to recovery

Tiger Woods went under the knife on Wednesday for the third time in less than two years to fix issues related to discs in his back.

Woods’ friend, Rory McIlroy, is concerned that yet another surgery is going to make the 14-time major winner’s return even more difficult and recovery lengthier.

“That’s his third back surgery in just over a year, and like someone once said, the best way to avoid your fifth back surgery is not to do the first one,” McIlroy said, according to Irish Golf Desk. “But it’s a procedure he needed, he needed it. I just hope he gets better.”

At this point, McIlroy is less concerned with Woods getting back to playing competitive golf than the former No. 1 having an improved quality of daily life.

“I think any time you touch your back, it is tough,” McIlroy said. “It looks like it is a long road to recovery for him, and I just hope he gets better, not just to play golf but just for everyday life and being able to do everyday things more than anything else.”

On Wednesday, Woods underwent a follow-up procedure to relieve discomfort stemming from a second microdiscectomy surgery on Sept. 16. That second microdiscectomy followed a similar procedure from March 2014.

Woods returned from the first microdiscectomy procedure just three months later, an accelerated recovery for a surgery that usually keeps athletes out of action for as long as a year. Woods admitted his return was to support the PGA Tour’s Quicken Loans National, which benefits his foundation. He also discussed that, before the surgery, he was concerned that the back pain was so severe that it might end his playing career.

However, Woods played an 11-event schedule in 2015. It wasn’t until his final start, a last-ditch effort at the Wyndham Championship to make the PGA Tour playoffs, that Woods scored his only top-10 finish of the yea. Woods complained in Greensboro of pain that he believed was caused by his hip, not his back. Weeks after the season ended, Woods announced additional disc trouble caused the pain and necessitated a second microdiscectomy.

Last week, Woods said at the America’s Golf Cup in Mexico, an event he had intended to play before undergoing the second microdiscectomy, Woods said he didn’t have a timetable for his return, but was targeting sometime in early 2016 after a “long and tedious” rehab process. It’s unclear if this latest procedure will push that target return date out further.

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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