Byrd did not and does not have an injury. He had a disc that was putting some pressure on the spinal cord causing bruising, which causes pain. It could have been handled with medication, but they decided there was plenty of time to permanently correct the situation by enlarging the opening in the disc, thus eliminating the irritation forever. According to my physical therapist (I tore a bicep a few months back), it is a fairly common procedure with basically a 100% success rate. He said that Byrd would simply need to get back into game shape and the back would no longer be an issue at all.

So you see, Byrd is perfectly healthy already, he is just getting back into peak physical condition.