Tom Brady says his sprained ankle is already starting to feel better, more than a week before the New England Patriots start their play-off campaign.
The veteran quarterback was injured during the Patriots' regular season finale against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday when defensive end Ndamukong Suh landed on his ankle.
Although the Patriots lost that game 20-10, their 12-4 record was enough to secure a bye from the first week of the play-offs, alongside AFC West champions Denver.
Their next game will be against one of the Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Texans or Kansas City Chiefs on January 16 at Gillette Stadium, and Brady is glad of the extra time off to get himself as near 100 per cent fit as possible.
Brady said: "Feeling better. Better than I was a couple days ago.
"Mentally, I'm ready to go. Physically, you always want to feel your best and I think you've just got to work as hard as you can at doing the right things to get to that point, so that's where I feel like I'm at."
"A lot of guys have been fighting through different kinds of bumps and bruises over the course of the season, so you try and take advantage of that as best you can to feel good because we're going to need everybody a week from Saturday to be at their very best.
"It's just a lot of time obviously preparing. There are a lot of different scenarios so you try to do your best mentally to get ready and physically you've just got to put as much effort in as you can to make yourself feel better."