So he had a cervical fusion... this is a surgery I do frequently.  Once it heals the surgery is more or less the strongest part of the neck.  The biggest problems with a fusion in this context are: (1) loss of nerve function prior to surgery may or may not recover after surgery, usually over the next 3-12 months (but his production after surgery implies no major concern on this) (2) the patient will have somewhat accelerated wear/arthritis at non fused levels.  While this is a real con