This doesn’t sound good at all.
Very weird thing to say under the circumstances.
I honestly thought this would be a retirement meeting. From my limited understanding of his condition there's not a lot of reason to even consider playing sports at the professional level.
"Hopefully I can get some kind of surgery"...
How in the world does he not know exactly what surgeries are available to him. My limited medical knowledge suggests their is no surgery for advanced early onset of arthritis but by this point he should know what his options are.
Sounds like he is either burying his head in the sand and unable to face reality or has not done much research into his own condition. Which is very very weird either way.
On a related note. LTIR for career ending conditions... better for him to stay LTIR or just retire? I imagine he sits on our LTIR until his contract is done and then retires.