I asked my dad who is a neurosurgeon (and got me into the bills) for this question and he said: The facts are sketchy: In one place it said he had a fracture and in the other it said he had a ruptured disk and two incisions in his back. The spinal column is composed of virtabrae, you can consider it a tripod with a vertebral body in the front and the facet joints in the back. They are stacked one above another, between them is the disk. A fracture can occur anywhere in the bone, in the front it is called a compression fracture (occurs from something like a hard landing in a helicopter). This would cause bone fragments to fragment into the nerves in the spinal canal, hence the compression causing nerve damage. This would cause loss of bladder and bowel movements, weakness in the legs and loss of sexual function... Apparently he was playing with it last year so it could not be the severe type, but a milder telescoping of the vetebral body without fragments. This could be treated conservatively or with a fusion (replacing entire bone and secure it with metal). This would take roughly six months for a average person to feel normal. This is usually accompanied by a posterior operation where they also put metal in the back. This is called a 360 degree fusion.If he has an associated disk rupture, then they would clean out the disk during the operation. The problem is that vertebrae fused to the one above and below it which can create limited movement. But not as much as you would think. The problem is the disk space above and below have to cause more of the motion and may be more prone to rupture. This is assuming he had this done. Once the fusion takes, he could play again but will always be susceptible to further injury.
Depending on the degree of the compression and how well the surgery went, he could play again after the offseason. This is assuming he had this done. If he just had a ruptured disk, he could come back in 3 months.
Not knowing all the facts, there is no way to be sure. But it is possible.