Charles Barkley ignores his own doctor’s orders and visits Craig Sager in the hospital

The doctor’s orders do not apply for Charles Barkley if it involves doing something for a special colleague.

Barkley recently had hip replacement surgery and was not cleared by doctors to travel. But that didn’t stop him from flying to Houston to visit TNT sports broadcaster and colleague Craig Sager, who went through his third bone marrow transplant Wednesday in his fight against leukemia.

Sager’s son tweeted out Barkley’s support.

“NBA on TNT” tweeted a photo of Sager and Barkley with a few words from Barkley.

“We go to see Sager to cheer him up and by the time you leave you’re like, ‘Is anything wrong with him?’” said Barkley. “He has the most positive attitude.… When you go to try and cheer him up his attitude is so upbeat he cheers you up.”

Barkley decided to be on Sager’s side because Sager’s wife caught a cold and doctors told her it was best for her to stay home and away from her husband in fearing she would transmit her illness to him.

eduardo.gonzalez@latimes.com

Twitter: @edmgonzalez