Surgeons in Madrid have successfully completed a third operation on golfer Seve Ballesteros to reduce swelling from his brain tumour.

“In that operation the targets originally planned have been achieved and has eliminated the oedema and the remnants of the tumour,” a statement from Madrid’s La Paz hospital read.

“The patient is stable … and is currently controlled in the intensive care unit”.

The operation on the 51-year-old, led by La Paz’s chief brain surgeon Javier Heredero, lasted 6-1/2 hours.

Ballesteros is suffering from an oligoastrocytoma, a tumour that affects two types of brain cell, and spreads diffusely inside the brain cavity.

He was admitted to hospital on Oct 13 after collapsing at the airport in Madrid when bound for a golf show in Munich.

His first operation called for a follow-on procedure two days later in which a section of skull was removed – a decompressive craniectomy – to allow for the initial brain swelling.

There was some mildly encouraging news around the weekend when the hospital said that Ballesteros had woken up on the day after the second surgery – and that they had noted that his reactions were satisfactory before putting him back under sedation.

However, further bleeding and a loss of consciousness necessitated today’s operation.

Tiger Woods has said he is “very confident” that he will compete in the Masters next April, even though his doctors have yet to name a date when he can start playing again following knee surgery.

Woods said: “If I have six months off from surgery, that puts me into January – and another four months puts me at 10 months. I figure I can come back after 10 months.

“Generally it’s between six to nine months when American football players are able to come back and if they can do it at that level, I hope I can do it in golf.”

However, Woods balanced his optimism with caution. “You have to let the ligament heal,” he said. “It has to get more taut. I don’t want to stretch it out because I don’t want to have it go back to where it was.” Keeping it taut means that the world No 1 must stay “on a straight plane” rather than attempt anything in the way of rotation.

Woods has not taken a full swing since the US Open at Torrey Pines in June. That was the week when he defeated Rocco Mediate on what he called a “play-off play-off” to bag his 14th major.

He had an operation the next week in which the tendon from his right knee was used to replace the damaged anterior cruciate ligament in his left leg.

On Monday, when he appeared at Torrey Pines as caddie for the winner of a Buick sweepstake, Woods did not have any problems as he stepped out of his buggy to study the lines of putts.

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