INDIANAPOLIS -- Doctors at the Indianapolis scouting combine looked at Willis McGahee's left knee and thought cautious thoughts. After all, it takes at least nine months to recover from three damaged knee ligaments. But, ultimately, doctors will leave it to the patient to work through the pain.

McGahee doesn't buy any negative thoughts. He works six days a week at rebuilding a left knee that was three quarters destroyed. He's optimistic where doctors might be skeptical. To McGahee, playing in 2003 won't a problem. He plans to be ready for training camp for the team that drafts him.

"It's not up to me, it's my doctor," McGahee said Wednesday at the scouting combine. "Whatever he feels comfortable with me doing, I'm doing. But June would be possible. Mentally, I'm ready to go. I've got to take it easy. I can't go real fast. I want everything to heal properly."

Dr. Walter Lowe checked out McGahee's knee and isn't ready to give him a "go" for the 2003 season. Lowe has known McGahee's surgeon, Dr. John Uribe, who recently said McGahee would be ready by the fall, for years. He applauds the work that Uribe performed on McGahee, but he wants to wait until April when McGahee returns to Indianapolis for a medical recheck to give better predictions about the University of Miami running back's availability.

	“	The MRI looked good. You wouldn't put him through a vigorous examination this close to his recovery. All indications are that he's going to get well, but he's still got a long way to go. He needs to focus on getting well, and he shouldn't be in a hurry. ”
		— Dr. Walter Lowe, who examined McGahee's knee at the combine

"The MRI looked good," Lowe said. "You wouldn't put him through a vigorous examination this close to his recovery. All indications are that he's going to get well, but he's still got a long way to go. He needs to focus on getting well, and he shouldn't be in a hurry."

Lowe said the complications for McGahee is that he's coming back from three damaged ligaments, not one.

"The recovery period is tough enough when you've torn one ligament," Lowe said. "It'll be nine months in September. It's way too early to predict that he'll be able to play that soon. He's coming along fine. He's got normal cartilage, and there's no arthritis in the knee, and that's very important. He'll play again, and he'll be good again. It's just when is the question. It looks like he's well on his way to recovery."

It was seven weeks ago when McGahee blew out his left knee in Miami's Fiesta Bowl loss to Ohio State. The injury may have prevented McGahee from being a top 10 choice, but it hasn't stopped his belief that he will be a top 10 runner as an NFL rookie.

To McGahee, he sees no reason why he won't gain more than 1,000 yards this fall. Initially, there was some depression.

"It took me like three days after surgery, and I went into my depressed mode," McGahee said. "I had to get over it. It was time to start working. I started rehabbing the day after surgery, doing little leg lifts and things like that." With that, his confidence came back. His goals to be a top 10 choice may have vanished, but his long-term confidence was back.

"My goals as a rookie are to be the best running back there is, which I did in college," McGahee said. " Long-term is to hopefully be in the Hall of Fame."

Clearly, McGahee won't be entering the Hall of the Lame for his recovery. He's doing amazing things for a halfback only seven weeks into using his new knee. He's riding a bike. Through squats, he's putting the weight of his body on his left leg. Next week, for the first time, he plans to run.

Doctors advised him to let nature take its course and try to heal for the first six weeks. After six weeks, he could start putting weight on the knee. Out went the crutches. In went the hard work.

"When I rehab with other knee patients, they're having a hard time doing certain things and they've only got one ligament torn and I've got three," McGahee said. "I'm way ahead of schedule. I think I'm doing a good job. I'm not trying to push it."

But McGahee is pushing it. He is surprising teams with tales of his recovery. His attitude is positive. His long-term prognosis is good. What's encouraged him is that there is a long list of NFL backs who have come back from major knee reconstruction.

"That's what motivates me," McGahee said. "They came back strong. Terrell Davis came back, Garrison Hearst, Priest Holmes. I know I can do it."

He's talked to former Hurricane halfback Edgerrin James, who came back from a major knee injury in 2001. But talking doesn't complete the recovery. That's why he works six days a week.

"I'm ready to go, I'm willing to work," he said. "My work ethic is real good. I'm working hard, I'm strong, I'm young, I can get the job done."

McGahee hasn't looked back on his decision to leave Miami and skip his senior year. To him, he had accomplished everything he could as a college runner. He'd been to two national championships, winning one.

"I'd done everything I possibly could do," he said. "I broke every record at UM. It's time to move on and get better."

To McGahee, it wasn't the money that motivated him about joining the NFL. The knee injury cost him millions. What motivated him was playing in the NFL.

"From a financial sense, if that's the case, why not come to the NFL and get a good contract," McGahee countered to a reporter questioning him about leaving school a year early. "But it's not all about that. I just want to play. It's important to me to get in the groove and learn the system and get my old feeling back."

The best case scenario may be going in the second or third round. That's up to the NFL. Being able to play is up to McGahee, and he's planning on playing this fall.

Teams that are interested can just sign up and make their selections in April.

John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com.