Ben Roethlisberger believes that he could play this weekend despite undergoing knee surgery last week.

The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback had an operation to clean up his meniscus, and is expected to be ready for the start of training camp.

The 31-year-old told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette: "It feels great. I saw [surgeon Dr James Bradley] this morning. He was pleasantly surprised with the range of motion and where we're at with the swelling. It feels great. I've been off crutches for a couple days now and moving around pretty good. I think I could play Sunday if I had to.

"According to Doc, the surgery went really well, my knee is in great shape. They took care of the little problem. It had been bothering me a little bit last year and we just decided now is the time to take care of it.

"We wanted to try to see if we could manage it. I'd come in on Tuesday and practice, it would feel good and by Thursday it was like a tire slowly losing air. It kind of hurt me on Thursday. We figured it was time to get it done and the doctors agreed."

Roethlisberger has dealt with several injuries throughout his career, completing a full 16-game season just since being drafted in 2004.