I have a bud here that had the same issue. He's a runner and the only time the knee became an issue was when running for distance. So it was just bad enough to cramp his style. He found a great sports med doc who specialized in doing those repairs. He had surgery and was running again within a
month of the surgery.
Point is..rehabbing wont "fix" a tear - only surgery. May not be serious enough for surgery as far as walking around but if it is cramping your style in the training department an option is to find a doc who specializes and consider getting it fixed while you are young.
I certainly understand avoiding it. But after seeing my buddie's experience I'm personally a little less afraid to have something like that repaired now. He had a really small incision and it was done microscopically. So very little down time. Now he runs without any pain at all.
PS - I'm not telling you to get cut on..I just wanted to share my friends experience here.
Repairing those tears has come a long way and is pretty commonplace now a days.