NEAL ELATTRACHE, M.D.: MANNY PACQUIAO GOOD TO TRAIN IN 6 MONTHS (Orthopedics This Week)
During their careers, most professional athletes have a string of injuries. They suffer for a bit—or a lot—for glory. During the recent dustup between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, the latter party emerged scathed. He turned to his orthopedic surgeon, Neal ElAttrache, M.D., for advice and ultimately, an operating room. Dr. ElAttrache, who is with the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles, tells OTW, “Manny was having shoulder pain during his training period. This was several weeks before the fight…it was essentially an aggravation of an old injury. This is pretty standard for fighters, and there is no such thing as pristine tissue in high level athletes. We treated the aggravation (with permission from U.S. Anti-Doping Agency) and he was back to his normal strength going into the fight.”
“Manny approached me with the question, ‘Is this the type of injury that will heal on its own or will it continue to cause me problems?’ I let him know that a re-injury was possible, and that if this occurred then it would take time away from his training and/or competitions. It is often best to r...
