If anybody knows about amazing recoveries from knee surgery, it’s Dr. James Andrews. The renowned orthopedic surgeon helped Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson rebound from a torn anterior cruciate ligament to become the NFL’s leading running back in less than a year.

Late last year, Andrews performed a similar surgery on South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore, who is trying to impress league representatives at the NFL Scouting Combine this weekend despite not being cleared to run. Andrews said he already has been amazed by Lattimore’s rehabilitation.

On Friday, Andrews talked about Peterson, player health and safety subjects, and Lattimore’s recovery with NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport:

“Well, I happened to be watching that game on Saturday afternoon as I remember. I saw the injury, and I knew right then that was a terrible injury,” Andrew said of Lattimore. “He got hit from the inside, and that tears up all of your ligaments, dislocates your knee, sometimes it gets the main nerve over there. He’s fortunate he didn’t get that. I’ll tell you about Lattimore: He’s a real joy to help take care of, and that kid’s got as much character as any athlete I’ve ever worked with. I describe it by saying ‘joy,’ and he’s motivated, working every day. He’s way ahead of the game. And I’m almost his No. 1 fan trying to cheerlead him back and hope I can get him back for next season. It remains to be seen whether he can play next year or not.”

– Bill Bradley, contributing editor