One of the big questions to ask when deciding about repair vs non-repair is what you are intending on doing with regard to sport/activity. If your aim is to be able to return to football then you may wish to look seriously at the surgical option. My reason for saying this is that football is a high risk sport considering the amount of pivoting etc involved. Playing a high risk sport on an unstable knee increases the risk of re-injury.

Doing strengthening now in preparation for surgery is vital. It is in effect "prehabilitation" or in other words, the first stage in your rehab.....it just starts before you have the surgery. The stronger your knee is going in to the surgery, the better your recovery will be. Your strengthening does need to be specific however to give you the best chance! A physio should be able to point you in the right direction regarding the exercises you should (and equally importatntly shouldn't) be doing!