The New York Giants announced Monday afternoon, via Twitter, that star wide receiver Hakeem Nicks has passed his physical and has been removed from the physically unable to perform list. Per league rules, Nicks must sit out three days of padded practices and will be eligible to practice in full Friday with the rest of his team.

Friday will make 12 weeks since the team announced that Nicks had broken a bone in his foot, and at that time 12 weeks was the estimated recovery period they gave. So this is all as expected. I can't imagine they'd play him in Saturday night's preseason game against the Jets after only one day of practice, but it's possible he could be ready for one or both of their final two preseason games, and the fact that he'll be returning to practice a little less than three weeks before the season opener indicates that he'll almost certainly be ready for that, barring further setbacks.

Further setbacks can't be ruled out. Nicks has had a bit of an issue with injuries during his brief NFL career so far. It's really the only possible knock on him as a player. Because he's had some foot and leg problems, the Giants would be wise to ease him back in, especially with so much time still left before the season. Nicks isn't the kind of player who needs the practice time to get up to speed on the offense or in tune with quarterback Eli Manning. He's fine on both of those counts. The most important thing the Giants can do with him now is managing his continued recovery as carefully as possible to avoid any new issue that might threaten his availability for the season. And I'm sure they feel the same way.