Doug Marrone has said that EJ Manuel is getting close to being able to return to practice with the Buffalo Bills.

The rookie quarterback has been sidelined since spraining his LCL during the team's 37-24 loss to the Cleveland Browns at the start of the month.

The head coach told reporters: "He will be working extremely hard this week. I can't answer the question is he going to be practising or not. I don't want to get into that. He's going to be working extremely hard to a level of a great stage of where we should be.

"He's going to ramp it up this week. He's closer to getting to the practice setting. I've got to watch him. I haven't seen him out there yet. We're getting ready to ramp him up, so we're going to throw him out there and see how he does.

"One of the things that's important for us, is that when we have players that are injured, we keep working with them and keep developing them not just cast them to the side, and say, 'OK, we're going to concentrate on the ones that are healthy, we can't worry about you right now'. I think that sends a poor message."

Manuel has 985 passing yards and five touchdowns so far this season.