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PHOENIX - New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady says he will be ready to face the New York Giants in the National Football League's Super Bowl on Monday (NZT) after a week of speculation about his fitness.
Brady was photographed outside the Manhattan townhouse of his girlfriend, the model Gisele Bundchen, last week wearing a protective boot which sparked days of rumours about his fitness.
But after arriving in Arizona to begin preparations for the game which could complete a 100 per cent season for the Patriots - only the second in the history of the NFL - Brady said he would be fit despite missing training last week with an ankle sprain.
"This won't keep me out of this game... It would have to take a helluva lot more than an ankle," Brady said.
"It is feeling good. I will be ready to go. It has been a good week.
"I think we need three great days of practice, which I hope to be participating in."
After laughing off the paparazzi treatment he received during his visit to New York, Brady said he did not believe that his ankle would hamper his performance.
"I am not concerned. I am really not. I think it was a good week in terms of the mental preparation and getting ready to play. And it is nice because I feel very energised down here to come into the hotel and to kind of start this process," he said.
"It is going to be a very fast week. I am not concerned about how it is going to affect my playing and I can't run anyway so it is not going to have much of an impact."
The only other team to have won all their games including a Super Bowl were the 1972 Miami Dolphins who went 17-0 while in the expanded NFL, the Patriots would end the season with a 19-0 record.
"I think we have an incredible opportunity as a team. Being 18-0 I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished thus far and I think we have talked as a team that for the rest of our lives we'll all remember this week, win or lose," he said.
"We are all going to do our best to hopefully make that one of the weeks that we remember for all of the great reasons and not a week we would like to forget."
New England completed their 100 per cent regular season with a 38-35 comeback victory over the Giants and Brady said that game showed the calibre of their rivals.
"The Giants are an incredibly tough opponent and we realized that when we played them the first time. We got our work cut out for us. I told everyone that whatever you may think may be important this next week it is really not that important because this week will have an impact on the rest of your life."
- REUTERS
