You can't go from rest back to full playing. Your physio should be able to offer you a graded approach to returning to full fitness which should include drills that relate to football. Most meniscal issues don't need surgery. Also most meniscal injuries take 24hrs to swell post damage so if that original injury swelled up quickly, mins or hrs, then it probably wasn't from the Wikipedia reference-linkmeniscus.

Any laxity in your Wikipedia reference-linkcruciate ligaments? Did the Wikipedia reference-linkMRI show that the ACL and PCL are intact and normal?