Getty Image / Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Tiger Woods provided a health update on Friday night after his scary car accident, where his leg was smashed. Following the single-vehicle crash in California, the golf legend is “recovering and in good spirits” after undergoing follow-up procedures on his leg injuries on Friday morning.
“Tiger has been moved to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and received follow-up procedures on his injuries this morning. The procedures were successful and he is now recovering and in good spirits,” a message posted to Tiger’s official Twitter account at 8 p.m. “Tiger and his family want to thank you all for the wonderful support and messages they have received over the past few days. We will not have any further updates at this time.”
“Thank you for your continued privacy,” the statement concluded.
The Cedars-Sinai Medical Center boasts a renowned Sports Medicine Institute that has specializes in rehabilitating professional athletes for sports-related and orthopedic injuries. The 45-year-old golfer had previously been recovering at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a Level 1 trauma center located about 18 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
Woods suffered multiple “open fractures” to his lower right leg and had a rod placed in his tibia and screws and pins inserted in his foot and ankle during emergency surgery, according to Dr. Anish Mahajan, interim CEO of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
“On behalf of our staff, it was an honor to provide orthopedic care trauma care to one of our generation’s greatest athletes. Harbor-UCLA Medical Center is a teaching hospital and one of only five Level 1 Trauma Centers in Los Angeles County,” Mahajan said.
Tiger suffered an injury to his talus bone, which connects the bottom of the lower leg to the top of the foot and is a pivot point for motion, sources told ESPN. Reports state that screws will likely be inserted into the area for support, and could be permanent.
Law enforcement labeled the crash as “purely an accident,” and police have ruled out criminal charges against Woods. Officials said Woods was sober at the time of the car accident.
The 2021 Hyundai Genesis SUV swerved off the road in Rancho Palos Verdes. Tiger, who had been wearing a seatbelt, had to be extracted through the smashed windshield of the mangled vehicle. He shattered his tibia and fibula on his right leg.
“He doesn’t want his career to end like this,” a source close to Woods told the New York Post on Wednesday. “So if there’s any way at all that he can continue playing golf, he will.”
