Kobe Bryant injury update: LA Lakers superstar after being cleared by doctors to play since last November, is set to return to the playing court after missing almost a quarter of the season due to injuries.

Kobe said that he is almost ready to play but not pretty soon as he stated that he looks to be seen playing with the Lakers on Sunday against the Raptors, the earliest.

"It feels pretty good," Bryant was quoted as saying after an interview by ESPN. "This is the second day now that I've been able to get out there and move around and play and play pretty well and it felt like I could do anything that I wanted to do out there on the floor, so, we progress to (Thursday). On to tomorrow. Let's see if I can go three days straight and then have another hard workout on Friday and kind of measure it accordingly."

Earlier this week, before Bryant talked in public himself, was reported to play against the Kings on Friday until he announced that he needs to condition himself and practice more to make him 100 percent after the surgery in his Achilles.

"Just running into the shooting," Bryant said. "Because, it's one thing to be out on the track all day and run. It's another thing to run, jump, change directions, now gather your legs for a shot. You still kind of feel like you get those 'Bambi' legs and that sort of thing. But, the Achilles feels pretty good. Other than that, you're just dealing with the typical things that a player playing 18 years is going to deal with -- just it's sore here, sore there."

In other news, the new Kobe 9, the new series of the Nike shoes has been released featuring a high cut shoe reportedly inspired not of his injury but of the Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao.