Manny Pacquiao Injury Update: Pac-Man to Undergo Surgery for Tear in Shoulder

The shoulder injury Manny Pacquiao was dealing with during his unanimous-decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Saturday was evidently serious.

Dan Rafael of ESPN.com reported Monday that Pacquiao will undergo surgery to repair a torn right rotator cuff:

Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times added further details on Pacquiao's timeline to return to the ring:

However, Rafael reported that the recovery time was closer to 9-to-12 months. 

"It's part of the game," Pacquiao said of his injury after the fight Saturday, per ESPN.com news services. "I don't want to make alibis or complain or anything...[but] it's hard to fight one-handed."

The ESPN.com report mentions promoter Bob Arum, who indicated that Pacquiao hurt himself sometime after mid-March.

Matt Moscona of ESPN Radio Baton Rouge weighed in on the situation:

Taking the significant pain Pacquiao had to be fighting through into account and how he was denied the request to take anti-inflammatory medication prior to the fight, it diminishes Mayweather's win.

It took long enough for two of the best boxers in recent memory to meet in the ring. Although a rematch seems far-fetched, the adversity Pacquiao was facing may indeed warrant a second fight with Mayweather, whose supreme defense and tactical brilliance were too much for Pacquiao in their first encounter.

Pacquiao tried to engage his opponent and be the aggressor in the fight, but couldn't get to Mayweather as often as he would have liked. Perhaps that was because he was dealing with the torn rotator cuff.

One has to wonder what Pacquiao might have been able to do fully healthy. His effort to make it through all 12 rounds and even get the better of Mayweather at times is commendable.

Mayweather has just one fight remaining on his current contract, slated for September, and has said that he will retire after that. There's doubt as to whether Pacquiao will be healthy enough by then to entertain a rematch, even if the two sides want one.