New England Patriots: Tom Brady has stitches removed from hand

With less than one week until Super Bowl LII, quarterback Tom Brady had an appointment to remove all 12 stitches from his injured throwing hand.

The NFL’s Network Ian Rapoport provided the update on the New England Patriots quarterback Sunday morning.

Brady suffered the injury in practice following a collision with Patriots’ running back Rex Burkhead’s helmet buckle. He received the stitches before the AFC Championship Game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Brady missed one day of practice last week, but wore a glove on his throwing hand when he returned. During the game, he wore a strip of KT Tape over the stitched to protect the wound. KT Tape can also help in the recovery process of an injury.

The injury obviously didn’t affect Brady, who completed 26 of his 38 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns. Brady led New England back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win 24-20.

A picture of Brady’s hand and wound was visible after the game however, when he left it exposed during his post game press conference.

On Sunday, Brady said on ESPN his injured hand still isn’t where he wants it to be and isn’t 100 percent.

"“I’m still working on it,” Brady said during an ESPN interview. “Again, it was only 11 days ago when I hurt it. But I think we’re in a decent place and hopefully it can get better over the course of the next seven days. It’s not quite where I want it to be right now, but hopefully by gametime it should be.”"

During the bye week before the Super Bowl, Brady remained wearing both gloves during practice, except for Friday when he switched back to the KT Tape. On Super Bowl Media Opening Night, Brady supported a pair of black gloves, covering his injured hand.

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Brady was removed from the injury report earlier this week, and his status for the Super Bowl is not in doubt.

"“This is exciting for me,” Brady told reporters Saturday. “I’ve never taken anything like this for granted, and I think we’re all very fortunate to be in this game. It’s a lot of hard work to get here. It’s exciting for us as players, coaches, for our families, for our friends, and what makes it great is when you go down there and you play great.”"

With a win on Sunday, Brady would stand alone with six Super Bowls, which would be the most by any player in NFL history. For New England, having Brady at 100 percent is certainly a very encouraging sign for the team. With his throwing hand healed, Brady will be ready to try and win his sixth Super Bowl.