My son went down with this injury several years ago. He was totally restricted in a Boston overlap brace for three months. It is not an easy thing for a kid to deal with. Thankfully we caught it early and it has healed. It took about 4 months before he was able to get rid of the brace and begin reconditioning. I do know of a few athletes that have had this injury and went on to have back surgery to repair it. It is not something that you should consider unless it is unavoidable. They have returned to sports after this surgery. It is a tough thing to have to deal with, I know every time my son gets a muscle spasm in his back we start to think the worst but so far he has been very fortunate in not having a recurrance.