Recovery experiences after cartilage transplant in the knee

Hey everyone, I'm a 21 year old guy who has a surgery scheduled in march 2023 for an autologous cartilage transplant on my right knee due to cartilage damage right in the sliding channel. 2022 was unfortunately a year filled with injuries, rehab, doctors appointments, MRI scans and frustration while playing volleyball because I knew that the level I was playing at was far from what I'd truly be capable of. I tore my hamstring and after the MRI scan we found out by coincidence that I had stage four cartilage damage but we put further "investigation" on hold and focused on fixing the hamstring. Some time went by and the hamstring was good as new and I continued playing, forgetting about the cartilage. First game I played my knee started acting up again so I went to the doctor again and he mentioned the damaged cartilage. Long story short, after several more appointments, MRI scans, an appointment at the hospital, reading up on different procedures and asking a few different doctors I have decided to go with the ACI surgery.

I'm aware of the healing process and duration but what my doctor has explicitly told me was that he obviously can't guarantee full recovery or even that the pain would go away after recovery. I know that the return-to-sport ratio is 94% after 18+-4 months which, though a very long period of time, seems really good.

What I'd like to know is, if anybody out there has had the same surgery, did you fully recover and were you able to get back into playing volleyball at all? Are there any pieces of advice you could give regarding preparation and rehab?