" Right-hander Ben Sheets knows that surgery offers the only possible route to continuing his major league career.

But he acknowledged that even a second operation on his right elbow doesn't necessarily guarantee a return to the mound.

Sheets, 32, held a conference call with reporters Thursday from his home in Louisiana, one day after the A's announced he had torn the flexor tendon in his elbow for the second time and will miss the rest of the season.

Sheets said doctors found that the tear in his elbow is "a lot worse" than the first one, leading him to believe a more extensive procedure would have to be done this time.

He's leaning heavily toward having the surgery, adding he'd prefer to schedule it soon.

"My arm just didn't hold up at the end of the day," Sheets said before the A's-Texas Rangers game. "I'm obviously getting toward the back end of my career. "... I think if I come back I'd have to feel a lot better than I did."

A four-time All-Star, Sheets missed the entire 2009 season after having elbow surgery in February of that year. When the A's signed him to a one-year, $10 million deal this past January, he and the team expressed confidence his elbow was completely recovered."