Kobe Bryant said that he still needs more time to practise before making his return to action with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The shooting guard practised with the team last week for the first time since rupturing his Achilles in April.
The 35-year-old told ESPN: "I need some more practices to kind of be able to measure it and test it and some of the limitations that I had in the first couple of practices, kind of come back and see if they're still there, if they're not.
"You kind of start looking at those dates a little bit, but I think those three [practice] days when we get back are going to be huge to kind of see what I can do, what I can't do, day after day."
The Lakers have three practices scheduled for next week.
