Tiger Woods confirmed that he plans to make his long-awaited return to golf at The Masters this week.
Woods has not featured at the top level since he suffered career-threatening injuries following a serious car crash over a year ago.
The 15-time champion competed at the PNC Championship in December with his son, Charlie, but it was still unclear whether he would appear for Thursday’s opening of The Masters.
However, Woods has delighted fans with the news that he intends to play in tomorrow’s tournament.
While many will have expected him to retire from the sport after his car crash, he has managed to recover very well and we will finally be able to see him back on the grass.
In celebration of Woods’ return, we have taken a look at 10 of the best comebacks from sports stars (ranked from lowest to highest)...
The 15-time champion competed at the PNC Championship in December with his son, Charlie, but it was still unclear whether he would appear for Thursday’s opening of The Masters.
5. Niki Lauda
In 1976, while close to securing his second World Championship title in F1, Lauda hit a bump in the road and his car burst into flames, skidded back out onto the track and was broadsided by another car. Lauda got torched inside his Ferrari and most of his face was incinerated. He bled internally and lapsed into a coma. Only 43 days later, he was behind the wheel at the Italian GP. He went onto win two more championship titles before retiring.
6. Greg Lemond
Lemond had already won one Tour de France when he was accidentally shot while turkey hunting the following year. The cyclist was 20 minutes from bleeding to death before he was operated on. He then developed a bowel obstruction following the shooting and was forced to undergo yet another surgery. He took two years to recover but, with 35 pellets remaining in his body, went on to win the Tour de France another two times.
7. Muhammad Ali
In 1967, the boxing champion refused to be inducted into the US Army and was stripped of his heavyweight title and banned from baxing for three years. After Ali cleared his name in court he returned to boxing, losing “The Fight of the Century” against Joe Frazier in 1970, but later beating him in a rematch followed by another victory over George Foreman in the same year. He kept fighting until 1981.
8. Christian Eriksen
Christian Eriksen went to the Euro 2020 tournament with Denmark, but suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch in their opening match. The midfielder was fitted with an implantable cardioverter-debfibrillator device in June and was absent from football until joining Brentford in January. He also made his international return in March - scoring twice in two games for Denmark.
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