Celtics center Theo Ratliff stood in the doorway between the trainers' room and the practice court at the Sports Authority Training Center at HealthPoint on Thursday afternoon and told reporters that he's finally decided to have what will likely amount to season-ending surgery to fix the herniated disc in his back.

Ratliff, who appeared in just two regular season games this year for the Celtics from November 8-10, hasn't set a date yet for the procedure, but he expects to have it done in the next two weeks. He indicated that it would be six weeks to recover from the surgery before he could resume physical activity, and another six weeks to get back into playing shape, which would make mid-April the earliest conceivable return date.

"That'll put you at 12 weeks. You do the math," said Ratliff, who told reporters that he has no prior history with back problems until this season. "It's just something that has to be done. I have the same symptoms going down my legs and I can't really do any type of exercise."