About 6 or 7 years ago i partially tore my ACL while playing indoor soccer. Unbelievably painful and incredibly swollen. I was given a knee brace, minor surgery to clean it up and told to take it easy. Over the course of a few years my knee would randomly slip out. That resulted in quite a bit a pain, a lot of swelling and hobbling around like a gimp for 2 or 3 weeks. Even worse, i was literally paranoid all the time about it slipping out which was the worst as i couldn't really do anything sports related. After many slips, all from pivoting somehow i was sick of it, and i had finally fully torn it, along with more cartilage and a partially torn MCL.
I was givin the full reconstrutive ACL surgery. They took a ligament from your hamstring and screwed it in place. Let me tell you, that was fucking hell and the rehab was far too long, but i am damn glad i got it done. It took 6 months to get it to about 90% and then another 6 to get it to 100%. I have not had a single problem with my knee since, and it feels 100% to this day. However, when i am doing anything sports related i wear a custom made knee brace made for sports (panam will hook you up with the place, but they are nearly 1000$ without insurance).
Moral of the story is, you can live with a torn ACL or partially torn ACL with little trouble. However, if you wish to play sports again, or to be worry free - you will likely need surgery. Strengthing the muscles in your leg will help immensely, however that will only go so far. If you fail to take my advice, you will likely go through the same thing as me and have your knee slip out from time to time until you are sick of it.  As stated above....do your rehab religiously and you'll thankyourself later.  And for god sakes, there is absolutely NO point in going back extra early.  The last thing you need to do is catch an edge and tweak your knee because the muscles were weak and the knee wasnt fully recovered.