St. Louis Rams' rookie running back Todd Gurley, the 10th overall pick of this year's draft, is expected to miss the first few games of the new season to allow complete healing of his ACL injury suffered during his college stint at the University of Georgia in November last year.

ESPN reported that the Rams head coach Jeff Fisher insisted that they are "in no rush" to utilize the 21-year-old back fielder on the field this upcoming season. The 57-year-old coach was adamant that Gurley will be given more time to recover from his setback so that he could return at his best when the right time comes.

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Fisher was also certain that he will not play his young and promising running back on Friday's preseason opener against the Oakland Raiders.

"He's still a ways away," the former Titans head coach said. "He's making progress. But again, as we talked about a few days ago, our decision not to PUP him was to be able to get him the individual reps and to build his reps and get him on the practice field."

Fisher also said that Gurley's reps during practice was enough for him to see his potential and progress, and that he is counting his reps and monitoring his rehab in order to know the right time when he is going to be fielded in a real NFL game.

Fox Sports noted that Gurley was not cleared by the team's medical personnel yet to participate in full-contact practices.

As of the moment, the Baltimore native is content in spending more time on 15-minute or 20-minute individual drills. Then he will briefly join his teammates on the practice field before going back to the sidelines again doing individual running exercises with trainers.

The 6-foot-1, 227-pound ball advancer was reportedly compared by his coaches and teammates to a "young Adrian Peterson," as per the NFL's official website.

Gurley was said to be amenable with his coach's restrictions. He believed that his career longevity is more important than to surrender to the excitement of playing in his first NFL match.

While he is in fact eager to play his first professional game, he also did not want to dive right in prematurely and to unnecessarily re-injure his knee.

TagsNFL, NFL 2015, NFL news, NFL News 2015, NFL rumors, NFL Rumors 2015, st. louis rams, Todd Gurley