X-DoNotUse-Sports

Tiger Woods Has Inflamed Neck Joint, MRI Shows

May 12, 2010 / 8:22 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Tiger Woods said tests Wednesday showed an inflamed neck joint that causes pain and makes it hard to turn his head, an injury that will require little more than medicine, massages and rest.

Woods had an MRI that revealed inflammation in a facet joint of his neck. He said on his website that when facet joints are inflamed, it causes pain in the area along with headaches and difficulty rotating the head.

He withdrew from the final round of The Players Championship on Sunday after a week in which he was seen stretching and rolling his neck. Woods said his neck had been bothering him since before he returned from a five-month layoff at the Masters, and that it was not related to the Nov. 27 car accident when he ran into a tree, setting off revelations of infidelity.

"I now need to take care of this condition and will return to playing golf when I'm physically able," Woods said.

Woods said treatment will include physical therapy, such as soft-tissue massage, rest and anti-inflammatory medicine. He said the prognosis was for a full recovery, and while the layoff is not expected to be long, rehab can vary.

Woods said in a press conference this week that he hoped to be able to defend his title at the Memorial, which starts June 3 at Muirfield Village. His next tournament will be his first without swing coach Hank Haney, who stepped aside Monday.

Woods said at the Monday news conference that his neck started bothering him two weeks before the Masters. He brushed it off as "no big deal" until it kept getting worse.

"I'm at a point now where I just can't go anymore," he said.

"I want to practice, I want to play, I want to compete, but this is not allowing me to do the things that I need to do on my golf swing to hit the proper shots. I need to get to where I can do that again."

In November, Woods was briefly hospitalized after he crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and a tree outside his home, resulting in a sore neck and a cut lip.

On Monday, Woods insisted he can deal with the pain, which he feels in the right side of his neck, but cannot deal with the spasms that affect his ability to turn his head.

"For me not to play all 18 holes, that was as angry and as frustrated as I've been in a long time," Woods said of withdrawing from The Players Championship on Sunday after six holes. It was Woods' first withdrawal from a tournament since the Nissan Open at Riviera in 2006.