INDIANAPOLIS -- DeForest Buckner had given so much of his life to football, but for the first time, he found himself wondering if the game might be taken away.
The Indianapolis Colts' three-time Pro Bowl selection at defensive tackle, the heart and soul of the team's defense, sustained a neck injury last season that forced him to contemplate some weighty decisions.
As in whether he wanted to continue playing football.
"I found myself in some deep, dark thoughts about what am I going to do?" Buckner said of the moment when doctors told him surgery would be required to rectify his issue.
With a herniated disc in his neck pressing against a nerve, Buckner's left side was largely useless. He had reduced feeling and little strength. He'd already tried, in vain, to address the injury with rest and stem cell therapy at a clinic he'd previously used in Panama.
Ultimately, Buckner grew comfortable with the daunting idea of neck surgery. But it was no slam dunk. He said reaching that decision required "talking with the people closest to me, just talking through all those emotions."
DeForest Buckner is coming off a delicate neck surgery that caused him to miss seven of the Colts' final eight games and resulted in an evaluation of whether he wanted to keep playing. He does. AP Photo/Gregory Bull Now, Buckner is several months into his rehab and is beginning to see progress. But he's still a long way from lining up on Sundays.
And that's no small thing. Buckner, 32, is among the players the Colts are leaning on most as they look to bounce back from a frustrating, underwhelming end to the 2025 season with a defense that will be the youngest the team has fielded in years.
The Colts wrapped up their offseason earlier this month without Buckner ever coming close to seeing the field during spring drills.
It's been a slow recovery for Buckner, one that has required "a lot of patience," he said. He recently recalled the early days postsurgery, when he couldn't perform even basic tasks.
"The first couple of weeks, you can't really do much," he said. "I mean, I couldn't even pick up my own kids for a little bit. I couldn't pick up... anything heavier than 10 pounds. And that was for a while."
Buckner said he resumed running in April and has been seeing steady progress. But whether he returns for the start of training camp in late July is very much up in the air. Buckner and the Colts have been consistent in saying the target is for him to return in time for the Sept. 13 season opener against the Baltimore Ravens.