For the second time in three years, Ray Lewis' season has been cut short due to injury. He opted to have hamstring surgery to deal with his injury. Lewis is a key contributor on the defense and has won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year twice. Consider these facts:

1. The Ravens were the second best defense in the league when he was playing earlier this year. Since he's been out they have dropped to seventh.
2. Even though Ray Lewis has missed a majority of the season, he still leads the team in tackles.

Ray Lewis' decision has an impact. Coach Brian Billick explained, "Oh, it's huge, it's huge. But you gain some things when you lose a player of that caliber, because other people have to step up."

 What is hamstring surgery? Usually a hamstring injury can be corrected with rehabilitation and strengthening of the hamstring. When this fails to work the patient will see a loss of strength and continuing pain in the hamstring. The decision to seek a surgical remedy is made after all rehabilitation efforts fail. The length of the rehabilitation efforts usually last 2 - 8 months.

How successful is hamstring surgery? Hamstring surgery is a tricky subject to evaluate as the hamstring may be fixed from a medical point of view, but not from a usage point of view. For instance, about 65% of patients report a complete success with surgery. This means that the hamstring returns to normal function, strength and flexibility with no pain. The other 35% will report some linger pain or decreased strength and flexibility. In those patients that were not healed, most were found to be suffering from something other than a hamstring issue.

How long does it take to recover from hamstring surgery? It takes 4-6 months to completely recover from hamstring surgery.