[IndyNorm]

Doyel actually included some useful information in his column on Latu:

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...g/73382928007/

Laiatu Latu, Peyton Manning had same doc

Laiatu Latu came out of retirement for the same reason as Peyton Manning a decade earlier: Because Dr. Robert Watkins said he could.

Got your attention? Good. Here’s the rest of that story:

Manning was having neck issues in his final years with the Colts. You remember. He underwent two surgeries, then needed a third in September 2011. His season was over. If this surgery, by far the most invasive of the three, didn’t work? His career was over, too.

Peyton went to Dr. Robert Watkins of the Watkins Spine Center in Marina del Rey, Calif., for neck fusion surgery. Less than five months later Watkins cleared him to play football again. Manning ended up in Denver. Won a Super Bowl. You remember.

Nearly a decade later, Latu was entering his sophomore season at Washington. This was 2020, after he’d played some as a true freshman, a four-star recruit – a member of ESPN’s top 300 – out of Sacramento. He had a promising future until he cracked heads with a teammate in practice. His neck was tingling. Doctors saw the damage in his neck and performed fusion surgery. The tingling lingered. Washington’s medical staff wouldn’t clear Latu, and suggested he retire from the sport. He did, but stayed on scholarship for the 2020 and ’21 seasons. Maybe he’d be a coach.

But then the coach at Washington, Jimmy Lake, was fired. And Latu’s mother, Kerry, started doing some research. She heard about this neck specialist in southern California whose office had worked on more than 150 NFL players, not to mention dozens of NBA, MLB and Olympic athletes. Kerry Latu wasn’t wanting another surgery for her son. She wanted another opinion.

Laiatu Latu went to the Watkins Spine Center, where Watkins performed a handful of tests and studied scans of his neck. And in late 2021, two years into Latu’s medical retirement, Watkins told the young defensive end what he’d told Manning 10 years earlier:

You’re good to go.

Washington wouldn’t clear Latu, so he transferred to UCLA. Two seasons and 23½ sacks later, Laiatu Latu was the most technically proficient pass rusher in the 2024 NFL Draft class. Not the most physically imposing – though he certainly looks the part at 6-5, 265 pounds, and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.64 seconds – but the most technical.

JMO but if a world renowned surgeon cleared him and there hasn't been any issues in the 2 years of playing since then, then there's probably not much if any additional injury risk for him than there is for anyone else in the NFL.