Athletics closer Octavio Dotel will have reconstructive elbow surgery as soon as possible, despite receiving recommendations from four doctors that he try to rehabilitate the injury first.

Dotel will be sidelined at least a year and possibly up to two years.

``Octavio does not feel he can pitch with the level of pain he was pitching with,'' A's trainer Larry Davis said Thursday. ``Everybody's tolerance level is different. Octavio feels like he's tried long enough. ... He's been throwing a long time and is tired of recurrent tendinitis.''

Dotel, who blew four saves in five outings from April 30 to May 11, had the elbow examined by Angels doctor Lewis Yocum and Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. Andrews will perform the ligament replacement surgery.

``It's not anything anybody is doing handsprings over,'' Davis said of Dotel's decision. ``In our estimation, you'd like to have everybody give it another try before you do this, so you think you've done everything possible to avoid this.''