FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Five-time Olympian Dara Torres may appear ageless, but she has endured her share of physical problems in the last year leading up to the Beijing Olympics.

The 41-year-old from Parkland, Fla., is scheduled to undergo shoulder surgery on Wednesday in Boynton Beach. It will be her third surgery in 10 months.

Dr. Joseph Chalal of Performance Orthopedics of the Palm Beaches will repair a partial tear in her right shoulder.

In November 2007, Torres had surgery on her right shoulder to remove a bone spur that was digging into her rotator cuff. Two months later, she had minor knee surgery.

Despite severe shoulder discomfort, Torres took home three Olympic silver medals and broke her own American record in Beijing. Chalal also performed the bone spur arthroscopy procedure.

"It's something that has been bothering me for awhile," said Torres, who had several cortisone injections leading up to Beijing.

Torres is expected to return to the pool in a few weeks. She will get back in the gym sooner, doing lower body work and physical therapy for her shoulder. She is also wearing an air cast on her left thumb and wrist for a tendon injury she sustained when she jammed her thumb on the wall in her last race in Beijing.

Wednesday's procedure may help prolong her accomplished swim career, which could include an appearance at next summer's World Aquatic Championships in Rome "for a little unfinished business," Torres said, referring to missing a gold medal by a hundreth of a second in the 50-meter freestyle. She is also considering a run at the 2012 Olympics in London.

"Never say never," Torres told Jay Leno late Monday on The Tonight Show, her first national appearance since the Olympics. "It's such an adrenaline rush and I love competing. That's four more years, I'll be in menopause by then. ... Hey, don't laugh, what if I do it?"

Lohberg is set to come home

Torres' coach, Michael Lohberg, of the Coral Springs Swim Club, is expected to return to his Weston home on Wednesday. The six-time Olympic coach, diagnosed before Beijing with aplastic anemia, has been undergoing treatment in a Bethesda, Md., hospital.

His wife, Biggi, left Tuesday to accompany him home, where his treatment will continue as an outpatient at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines.

"I am excited to be coming home, but very tired," Lohberg said. "I am not over the hump yet. This will be a long recovery process."