GREEN BAY, WI (WHBL) - The Green Bay Packers have reportedly told Pro Bowl safety Nick Collins they’ll release him, so he won’t risk permanent injury from the ruptured neck disc he suffered last fall. Collins’ co-agents, Alan Herman and Dave Butz, confirmed the release to newspapers in Milwaukee and Green Bay.  Collins has not said whether he planned to return to football.  But Packers’ coach Mike McCarthy, general manager Ted Thompson, and Collins’ own agent had earlier advised him against playing in the N-F-L again.  But they won’t make that call, since Collins will become a free agent and any team could sign him. The Journal Sentinel said the three-time Pro Bowler was recently evaluated by five neuro-surgeons to determine if it’s safe for him to play again. The 29-year-old Collins had single-level cervical fusion surgery soon after Carolina running back Jonathan Stewart tried to hurdle over Collins in week two last year. The procedure included the attachment of a titanium plate, which holds two vertebrae together. Collins was due to make just over four-million-dollars in salary and bonuses this year. The Milwaukee paper said the move will take about three-million off the salary cap – thus giving the Packers around 12-million dollars of cap room.