INDIANAPOLIS -- Detroit Lions running back Ameer Abdullah has been fully cleared by doctors to return to the field, according to a source, after missing almost all of the 2016 season with a foot injury.

Abdullah was the Lions’ starting running back at the beginning of the season and had 18 carries for 101 yards and five catches for 57 yards before tearing a ligament in his left foot against Tennessee in Week 2. The injury required surgery by Dr. Robert Anderson in Charlotte and kept him out for the year.

Lions running back Ameer Abdullah is recovered from a foot injury that kept him out most of the 2016 season. Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire

He said at the end of the season he believes he can be a high-level running back in the NFL as he enters his third season in 2017.

“Coming into this league, I had no other plans but to be a premier NFL back in this league, and I know I will be,” Abdullah said in January. “It just takes patience. It takes prayer. It takes diligence and coming from these injuries in the last year, it’s just that much more important to me now.”

Abdullah averaged 5.61 yards per carry before his injury. In his career, Abdullah has started 11 games and had 161 carries for 698 yards and two touchdowns. He also has 30 career catches for 240 yards.

The Lions have said they plan on improving the running game this offseason, and Abdullah should be a part of that.

“I think the running back position, as a whole in the National Football League, there’s very few guys that just carry the ball 30 times a game. So we’re not going to just put all our eggs in one basket and say, ‘You know, Ameer Abdullah’s going to carry it 25 times.’ I don’t think that’s realistic,” Lions general manager Bob Quinn said. “I think the stable of backs that we have with Ameer, Theo (Riddick), Zach (Zenner) and Dwayne (Washington) is a good set of backs.

“We’ve just got to improve the entire running game. That includes, like, how the receivers block, how the tight ends block, the offensive line, the play-calling. Like, everything needs to get evaluated and we’re in the middle of that process right now.”