As the team and the player's agent have confirmed, Dwight Howard is scheduled to undergo a surgery today, which will cost him the NBA play-offs, but most probably the London Olympics as well.

Howard went through an MRI yesterday to establish the severity of his back injury, and then consulting with his doctors decided that the best solution is to have surgery to get rid of the problem once for all, since mild rehabilitation wasn't an option for him anymore and the surgery had to be done at some point.

The rehabilitation process after such injuries, herniated disk, usually takes about four months to fully recover from, so Howard is almost certain to miss London 2012 Olympics.

"It hurts (emotionally)," Howard told ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard.

"That's the first thing - it hurts. And then with people saying and thinking I'm quitting on my team. This is a real issue. I tried to play through it and it just made my back worse."

Howard also informed Broussard that he will begin rehab right away and return to light training in four months.

Earlier in the season Chauncey Billups had also a season, and possibly a career, ending injury which will cost him the Olympic tournament participation while some days ago USA national team coach Mike Krzyzewski also cut Lamar Odom.