Arian Foster wishes he could be on the field with his teammates when the Texans open their regular season on Sunday against the Chiefs, but the star running back knows he has to listen to his body.
"When you're dealing with muscle injuries they tend to re-occur if you're not careful, so it's not something you can push through," Foster said during a candid session with reporters on Thursday. "I've played entire seasons with torn meniscus, I've played an entire season with a broken collarbone. I've played an entire season with things that you can push through but muscle injuries there's nothing you can do because it literally hinders the movement.
"So as soon as I feel like the movement isn't hindered and I'm not going to re-injure it, I'll be out there."
Foster -- working his way back from groin surgery -- declined to offer any timetable on a return to action. But he spoke Thursday like someone who believes he will play a lot of football at a high level in 2015.
"I think this is going to be my best year and I still feel like it will be," he said. "It's going to be tough because I'm going to have some ground to make up, but I was feeling the best, feeling the quickest that I felt. You can judge for yourself."
Foster also spoke of personal growth in the past year. He said he managed to overcome the feeling that he was "too cool" for counseling, and discussed the pressure that he and many other young players face on and off the field.
"Once I worked on self-reflection and things that were self-destructive, once you're honest with yourself, there's a freedom."