Buffalo, N.Y. ? Bills rookie Willis McGahee passed a physical on his injured left knee Tuesday, one of the final steps that would allow the running back to begin practicing as early as next week.

John Uribe conducted the physical in Miami. Uribe is the University of Miami team physician who surgically repaired the three torn ligaments McGahee sustained during the Hurricanes’ loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl last January.

“He’s ready to play,” Uribe said. “He’s worked pretty hard to get back to where he is and the fact that his biology cooperated is pretty amazing. He looks very good.”

McGahee’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, was excited by the findings, and said the results all but cleared the way for his client to begin practicing.

“It was a successful visit and he’s on his path to an amazing recovery,” Rosenhaus said. “There doesn’t appear to be any reason not to go ahead.”

Rosenhaus said the Bills approved McGahee’s exam in Miami, and that Uribe was passing along the results to the team’s training staff.

The final step for McGahee’s return is getting clearance from Bills team doctor John Marzo.

Bills president Tom Donahoe declined to comment on the test results.

“We will offer a comment when Willis has been cleared by our doctors for practice,” Donahoe said.

The findings back up the results of the Bills’ most recent tests, which showed McGahee’s injured knee to be between 90 and 92 percent rehabilitated.

Uribe said the most important measure was comparing the strength in McGahee’s injured leg to his healthy one.

“I would like to see more mass in his (injured) leg, but it was pretty close to normal,” Uribe said. “His strength certainly measured proportional to his other knee.”

McGahee, selected 23rd overall, opened the season on the reserve nonfootball injury list. The earliest he could take the field is next week.