TIGER WOODS could be back in action within 12 weeks of undergoing surgery to repair his damaged knee ligament. That is the view of top knee specialist Louw van Niekerk, who has performed similar operations on Premier League footballers.

Van Niekerk, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, would normally recommend a six-month period of rehabilitation for a footballer after a knee reconstruction.

However, he believes Woods could be able to start work on his short game in half that time despite reports which have suggested he might be out of action for a year.

Van Niekerk said: "If we are doing this surgery on a Premier League footballer, we allow for at least six months of rehabilitation. The surgery is important - it has to be done very accurately and meticulously - but the rehabilitation is even more important.

"If the cruciate ligament is the knee's onboard computer, the physiotherapy and rehabilitation reprogram the computer, and it takes time to do that. That's what can take up to six months for someone involved in top-class sport and the demands that places on the knee.

"In golf, we can sometimes achieve those objectives more quickly. In some cases, some patients would return to their short game - chipping, putting and maybe playing approach shots - three months post-surgery.

"A golfer could get back into training 12 weeks post-surgery."

Woods had revealed he is to undergo surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee just days after battling his way through a sudden death play-off to win the US Open, the 14th major title of his career.

His victory was all the more remarkable because he had a third operation on the knee just weeks ago, and was also suffering from a double stress fracture of the tibia.

Woods later admitted he had perhaps not heeded the advice of his doctors in returning to the sport so quickly, although Simon Moyes, another of Britain's leading orthopaedic surgeons, does not believe that will have caused too much more damage.

Moyes, who works from the Wellington Hospital, said: "I personally believe that playing in the US Open would only have made his condition marginally worse; however I am impressed he could play in his condition.

"Once Tiger Woods has had his operation, I would expect him to be out of action for three months."