Repairing the damage
Cockney Steve,
You appear to be knowledgeable on the subject, and also dismissive of comments made by others.
You read my post, and therefore will have seen that I suggested Boeing have TWO options; I further discussed the pros and cons of both. Whilst a patch repair may appear to be the best option, it is not necessarily straight forward, and requires a team of design, static and fatigue stress engineers to ensure all aspects (including attracting load) are covered.
I stand by all my previous comments, including what I said about Boeing being very unlikely to have available large fuselage sections to cater for repairs. Time will tell.