It sounds like your reasoning is "if you're going to have your leg broken, better your left than your right!" I would have gone for the more short term painful

It sounds like your reasoning is "if you're going to have your leg broken, better your left than your right!" I would have gone for the more short term painful but long term better option of letting them fail. What would have replaced it would not have been as fragile in this regard. (The replacement would have had other weaknesses.. but not these.)