Pacquiao shoulder is A-okay

NEW YORK CITY – Manny Pacquiao went to see his doctor in Los Angeles last Tuesday and left the clinic with his right shoulder that was operated on last May in good working condition.

Pacquiao was cleared to fight on April 9.

“Ready to go. Ready to fight,” said Pacquiao at the check-in counter of the Los Angeles International Airport Wednesday afternoon.

“The doctor was very pleased and very surprised with the recovery. He has placed no restrictions on Manny,” said Michael Koncz.

“It’s a hundred percent,” the boxer’s adviser added.

Pacquiao took a five-hour Virgin America flight to New York for the second and last leg of his press tour exactly 79 days to his third fight with Timothy Bradley.

It was midnight when he checked in at the Le Parker Meridien, just a block away from Central Park, with his wife Jinkee and a small entourage.

Another press conference is set Thursday at the Madison Square Garden. Other media interviews with both boxers and their trainers have been scheduled ahead.

Pacquiao heads home Friday morning and should be in Manila at round 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

The Bradley fight will be Pacquiao’s 66th and last. He has decided to retire after over two decades of fighting. In May, he faces his biggest test as a politician when he seeks a seat in the Philippine Senate.

Pacquiao lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM last May, and four days after he underwent surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff on his right shoulder.

Outside his team, no one knew that he injured his shoulder a couple of weeks to the fight, while training. He said it was actually an old injury sustained in a jet-ski crash.

For a couple of months, Pacquiao walked around with a sling to hold his right arm. But sooner than expected, he started to feel better and started playing basketball.

After Tuesday’s press conference at the fashionable Beverly Hills Hotel, Pacquiao visited Dr. Neal Elattrache, the same specialist who performed the surgery.

Pacquiao said he didn’t stay long at the Los Angeles clinic, and that the examination was over in 20 minutes. The doctor, he said, made sure his shoulder was fine.

“Okay naman. Pinagalaw galaw lang,” added Pacquiao, who hasn’t fought since May.

From the clinic, Pacquiao spent the rest of the evening playing basketball with his friends at a local high school gym.

He was back in the hotel at 2 a.m.

Pacquiao could have played basketball until the sun came out.