I have not met many that are "later in life". I believe that the only one I have actually spoken to is a 55 year old woman that still rows 5x a week. She looked like she was put together pretty good for 55 years old.
I think that, just like any sport, if you have injuries that you deal with to play, you are likely to deal with that injury the rest of your life to some extent.
My kid (knock on wood) has not such problems, but is only on year 2 of the sport.