Chicago Sports Doctor Optimistic Louisville's Ware Will Bounce Back

(CBS) -- It has been the talk of the nation: the horrifying injury suffered by Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware.

He was simply trying to block a shot Sunday and broke his leg in his two places.

His coach and teammates cried. But there appeared to be good news Monday. A photo surfaced of Ware actually on his feet, less than 24 hours after the horrific injury.

Sports physician Jeff Mjaanes of Rush University Medical Center, who watched Sunday's game and saw the leg-break occur, agrees there is reason to be optimistic.

"I can only tell you from personal experience that I've had other basketball players, even collegiate basketball players, who have had this, and they have recovered and they've gone back to play basketball," Mjaanes tells CBS 2's Jim Williams.

Mjaanes speculates Ware may had an underlying condition before he broke his leg in two places, "like a stress fracture that had maybe been there for a while."

"Because to just jump and just land like that -- basketball players do that a thousand times every day," he says.

After two hours of surgery, in which doctors reset the bone and inserted a metal rod, Ware was able to pose with his coach Rick Pitino.

He faces many months of rehab. But the Bears' Michael Bush suffered a similar leg fracture at the University of Louisville and ended up playing in the NFL.