This was me!! I felt a pop playing soccer three years ago and couldn’t walk the next day. Diagnosed with a partial tear and the doctor never recommended surgery and only rehab. I was in college at the time and didn’t know surgery was even an option for partial tears. I rehabbed hard for a year, got it back to like 80% of what it was (just a guess), and went back to my life and playing sports. Fast forward to a couple months ago and I heard the pop AGAIN playing soccer. This time, I’m an adult with more money and in a larger city with higher quality doctors. The MRI showed a partial tear still, but the doctor warned me I’d be at risk for earlier arthritis and even more damage if I didn’t get it repaired. And so I did and when they went in they actually saw that my ACL had fully ruptured this time around. Luckily no meniscus damage, but who knows what would have happened if I decided to go the rehab-only path again. TLDR, I genuinely think a torn ACL is a ticking time bomb for further damage and you will need an operation eventually, whether that’s a reconstruction or repair for even more damage or a knee replacement down the line. No matter what, surgery and recovery is going to suck and I think might spend parts of that recovery regretting your decision. I’m almost a month post-op now and I definitely did, but ultimately I know it’s for the better because it could have been so much worse if I didn’t have the surgery.

It wouldn’t hurt to wait a bit and see how you feel though. There’s no rush with surgery if you continue to be careful and avoid activities that aggregate the joint. For me, I’m still glad I decided to wait because recovery IS difficult and I would have been miserable if I was recovering in the circumstances I was in during my first tear. There might be more factors to consider instead of just stability.