Bruschi at low risk, doctors say

''All of a sudden I came to the point where they tell me I can play," said Bruschi, who will practice with the team tomorrow. ''I feel I can play. I know I can play. Let's just play."

Doctors not involved in Bruschi's care said a total recovery from the kind of stroke Bruschi suffered is not uncommon, especially among young, healthy people like the 32-year-old All-Pro. And, though many older stroke victims suffer a second stroke within a year, Bruschi is at low risk for that as long as the heart surgery he underwent in March eliminated the root cause of the first one, which temporarily left him partially blind in his left eye and unable to walk steadily.

Bruschi's medical team, led by Dr. David Greer of Massachusetts General Hospital, believes that Bruschi suffered the stroke because of a tiny hole between the heart's two upper chambers that allowed a small blood clot to travel from his leg up to his brain, cutting off the blood supply to some of the brain. A month later, he underwent surgery to close the hole -- called a patent foramen ovale, a common birth defect that most people never know they have unless, as with Bruschi, it causes a stroke.

After eight months of treating Bruschi, Greer said recently, the linebacker is ''completely back to normal and is exceptionally healthy." He predicted that Bruschi could play football again ''at a very high level."

''It sounds like a very rational choice as long as his [physical and psychological impairments] are nonexistent," said Dr. Kinan K. Hreib, director of the stroke service at Lahey Clinic in Burlington. ''He'll go back to his good old form again."