If the Braves were hoping to find an easy solution within John Smoltz's damaged right shoulder, that wish went unanswered Tuesday.

The Atlanta ace has a damaged labrum, a tricky injury even to a young pitcher but a serious complication for a 41-year-old with 3,395 innings of career work.

If his future remains unclear, this was far worse than an easily treatable condition Smoltz had hoped for.

"You rarely find a pitcher of John's experience level and age that doesn't have some sort of labrum issue," general manager Frank Wren said Tuesday evening. "It was pretty significant, what they found with his labrum.

"At this point they don't know what the prognosis is until he starts trying to throw and rehab in the next few months."

Smoltz remained at the Andrews Clinic in Birmingham on Tuesday night. He had yet to consult with Dr. James Andrews, who performed the operation, nor Wren. The pitcher is expected to return to Atlanta late Wednesday afternoon.

The labrum is the ring of tissue that anchors the shoulder in its socket and is prone to wear down over the course of most pitchers' careers. Braves reliever Blaine Boyer had a labrum condition repaired two years ago and rounded back into full form only this year.

But a significant deterioration of the labrum for an older pitcher poses a more complicated setback. While Smoltz has shown extraordinary resiliency over his career in recovering from four elbow surgeries over a six-year period, this is not a comparable situation.

With a bigger group of muscles and more moving parts, shoulders often prove more problematic after surgery. Smoltz was placed on the disabled list last Wednesday after his shoulder worsened from only one inning of live work following nearly six weeks on the DL.

It was the former Cy Young winner's wish to have a quick resolution to his post-op choices. Speaking to reporters last week, he said, "They're going to know right away. They'll know in a minute."

But all the club knows now is the surgery was a serious one, and re-habbing such an injury is not a given.

"Coming out of this surgery, I think there are a lot of unknowns," Wren said. "The one thing we do know is how much of a competitor John is, and he's going to do everything in his power to come back.

"But based on the surgery, we just don't know."

Having already scratched Smoltz for the summer — even something as simple as bone-chip removal could have knocked him out for the season — the club must now ponder a franchise without him.

"I don't think we can predicate any moves on whether John will or will not be with us next year," Wren said. "We've got to plan as if he will not going to be with us, and then it will be a big bonus if he is. That's all we can do right now."