LOS ANGELES -- Shaquille O'Neal will undergo surgery on his troublesome big toe sometime in the next two to three weeks.

	O'Neal

And he says he's worried about it.

"I gotta tell you, I'm pretty scared," O'Neal told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published Friday.

"I can't sleep some nights thinking about it," he said. "No offense to anyone, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life walking like Bill Walton."

A painful arthritic condition had the Lakers' franchise player limping through much of last season and forced him to the injured list twice. After weighing several options, O'Neal has chosen to have a cheilectomy, in which bone spurs will be shaved off the toe, increasing his mobility and, he hopes, decreasing the pain.

O'Neal, 30, will be able to walk immediately after the surgery and should be running full-speed within six weeks, according to his agent, Perry Rogers.

Assuming the operation is performed in early September, it's at least conceivable O'Neal would be back in time for the three-time defending NBA champions' season opener, Oct. 29, when the Lakers play host to the San Antonio Spurs.

"The odds are greater than 90 percent that he will experience much less pain than he did last season," Rogers told the Los Angeles Daily News.

Dr. Robert Mohr, chief of podiatric surgery at UCLA Medical Center, will perform the operation.

"This is a potentially career-influencing decision, and if not properly treated, it could ruin him," Mohr told the Times.

Lakers officials had pressed O'Neal to have surgery as soon as possible to avoid interfering with training camp, which opens Oct. 1, and the start of the regular season. But O'Neal's decision-making process was bogged down by conflicting medical opinions.

He consulted with three doctors this summer and got three disparate recommendations: do nothing (and rely solely on therapy and medication), undergo the cheilectomy or undergo a dual surgery that also would involve cutting into the bone and inserting a pin.

The last option would have required two to three months of recovery time.

"We had to get three different opinions because this is my future, my life, we're talking about," he told the Times. "Then all three doctors had different opinions. When doctors start fighting, I get nervous."

Though it will lessen the pain, there is at least a small chance the cheilectomy will accelerate the arthritis, doctors have advised O'Neal.

"This is not a cure. They can't cure arthritis," Rogers said. "This is relieving the symptoms."

O'Neal was on the injured list twice last season because of pain from his toe and missed a total of 15 games. He averaged 27.2 points and 10.7 rebounds -- below his career averages -- and wasn't the same player he'd been previously on defense.

However, the 30-year-old O'Neal stepped up his game when it counted the most, dominating the inside in the last two games of the Western Conference finals, when the Lakers beat Sacramento, and the NBA Finals, when they swept New Jersey.

"It was really bad," O'Neal to the Times. "My foot hurt so bad I had no elevation. My stomach and my butt were raw from the medicine I took [Indocin, an anti-inflammatory]. Then I became reliant on that medicine. If I didn't take it, I would have a horrible game. That's when it got scary."

O'Neal said that when he recovers, he'll be motivated.

"The first three years were great, but this year is the big one," he told the Times. "All the criticism and insults I've taken over this, I'm coming back with a vengeance you've never seen...

"This year Phil has something to prove, I've got something to prove, Kobe has something to prove," he said. "There is more at stake than in the other years. You will see us play like it."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.