Ray Rice has won his appeal against the NFL's decision to suspend him indefinitely earlier this season after footage emerged of him assaulting his wife.

The former Baltimore Ravens running back was released by the team in September after a surveillance tape showed him striking Janay Palmer, who was then his fiancee, in a lift at a hotel in New Jersey.

NFL Media announced this evening that the 27-year-old's appeal against the ban, which was heard earlier this month, has been successful, and that he is immediately eligible to return to playing.

Before the footage of the assault was made public, Rice had been handed a two-game ban, having been arrested in the aftermath of the incident in February.