Agent: Manning will play again

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Peyton Manning’s agent tells 24-Hour News 8 sports reporter Chris Widlic he expects the quarterback will play again.

"He’s going to do everything in his power to play, and if it was with the Colts, he’d be very happy," said Tom Condon, agent for the superstar Colts quarterback.

Condon's statement comes a day after reports that doctors have cleared the Colts quarterback to resume his NFL career months after his third neck surgery in less than two years. In the early morning hours Friday, however, Colts owner Jim Irsay said via Twitter that Manning had not yet been cleared to play by the team .

Condon acknowledged that fact, too: "The team physical is obviously a very different thing."

The ongoing drama has largely overshadowed Super Bowl news in the host city, Indianapolis, and beyond. Questions about Manning's future have come up at nearly every news conference. Both Irsay and Manning have urged that the focus should be on the Super Bowl this week, but both have continued to make statements on various platforms that has perpetuated the speculation.

Manning is due a $28 million bonus on March 8, per the contract he signed last summer, before news that he would miss the entire season to rehabilitate from the latest neck surgery. If the team doesn't renegotiate that contract or pay the bonus, they risk losing Manning to free agency.

Manning, Condon said, "is aware of the business circumstances."

But the agent went on to say that the next step would come fairly soon.

"Sometime prior to when the option bonus payment is going to be made, ... Jimmy and Peyton will sit down like good friends that they are and figure something out," Condon said.

Earlier this week, even before news he had been medically cleared to resume play, Manning told reporters he had no plans to retire from the NFL.