I agree, it's a playable injury. I've a had a partially torn acl in the past, about 12 years ago; I tore it during tennis aggravated it during a pick up hockey game. I had stability issues i.e., it would feel like it buckled by just pushing a shopping cart. I had it evaluated by SportMed Specialist at UBC. They gave me a choice of wearing a $1,500 (brace covered by medical) and let it heal by itself and continue to play beer league hockey, or surgery. I chose the brace. I wore it for four years. Now, I don't even know which knee the tear was in. I'll be 54 next week, I just snowboarded Cypress a couple of days ago and I play tennis 5 to 6 days a week at level 4.0, when the sun is out and weather is warm. So I feel this decision to play is not a bad decision or medical practice. At his level the surgery may be warranted sooner than later if he doesn't want to wait years to let it heal as the ligament doesn't get much circulation, otherwise it will take a long time to heal.