Sitting on his recliner chair, a smiling Justin Thomas feels “a whole lot of nothing.” Not our words, but his. A week ago, Thomas broke the news of his microdiscectomy to the world. As he spoke from the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, a visible concern clouded his face. He was not to play golf for the coming few months. That’s a challenge in itself until he opened up about the actual gut-wrenching feeling.

Speaking on the PGA Tour’s Cut Line Show, he admits at first that he’s good. But the feelings are “strange,” especially when you have a little one at home. “It’s a pretty helpless feeling when your daughter looks up at you and wants you to pick her up, and you just can’t. She’s one, and you can’t explain to her why,” Thomas said with a melancholic smile. Just a few days ago, he celebrated her first birthday.

The root cause of all this trouble is the herniated disc in his lower spine. After a nagging hip pain for months, which he had avoided, Thomas’s MRI introduced him to the real culprit. The surgery, then, was successful, and he was discharged the same day. But it is the recovery that is proving to be the real challenge.

“It’s just nothing for two weeks. It’s really just sitting for 30 minutes an hour, getting up, walking around my house, sitting back down, doing the same thing, icing,” he shared on the show.

Thomas has named this phase “BLT.” That means, a strict no-no to “bending, lifting, or twisting.” The recovery process for such issues tends to be slow. He can’t do much for three weeks. After this, his doctors will begin his real rehab. Ideally, he could be back in two months. But Thomas himself said he doesn’t want to pinpoint a date.

“I’m not putting any tournament on the calendar or a specific time for returning…I want to be very smart and patient in letting my disc fully heal…,” he had explained at the time of breaking the news.

The domino effect of that has already begun. The first block that fell was The Skins Game. Justin Thomas was set to appear in the show’s relaunch, but he had to withdraw.

Shane Lowry will now be filling his shoes. Then, next in line is the Hero World Challenge. The Tiger Woods event would be held in December, and that means Thomas will be unable to contest. In his place, Aaron Rai has come up. Coincidentally, much of Woods has also withheld his name from the event due to his own back surgery last month.

Anyway, this medical absence is set to continue until the start of the next season. A likely comeback could be Augusta, but that remains to be seen. For Thomas, the feeling is heavy as he has had a great season so far. He ended his 1,064-game winless drought by dominating the RBC Heritage — his 16th PGA Tour victory. Then there were eight top-10s, and a T7 at the TOUR Championship. Currently, he’s comfortably placed in 8th place on the OWGR. He was all ready to end his season on a good note, but the universe had other plans.

“It’s been tough,” he said on the show. “But you know, my wife’s been great and just reminded me, you know, we’ll get through it. Just think of a couple of months from now.”

For now, Justin Thomas is sitting on his chair, bingeing a whole lot of series and sharing several memes. Meanwhile, some advice from the golf world is waiting for him.

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Wisdom from the locker room

For Justin Thomas, the advice of several players who have been through the same ordeal is acting as a mantra. At the top of them is Jim Furyk‘s voice: “No one has ever come back from an injury late.” That sole line has become Thomas’ entire mindset. With renewed optimism, the Ryder Cupper is now prioritizing his long-term health rather than wanting to make an immediate comeback. “It’s a bummer, but I don’t want to have this stuff bother me the rest of my life,” he said.

On the other hand, his buddy Jordan Spieth has left him a message. The golf’s Golden Child has undergone multiple surgeries in his career, especially on his left wrist tendon, which changed his playing style altogether. As he rushed his comeback, he faced the consequences. Cautioning Thomas on not repeating the same mistake, he said, “I was told…by most everybody…that you never come back too late…So take your time.”

In a sport where the schedules are tight and multiple events are racked up in a span of weeks, Thomas’s absence will haunt him. But only patience is the key.