Rob Gronkowski's agent has said that he expects the New England Patriots tight end to be able to play his first game of the 2013 NFL season "soon".

The 24-year-old has been practising with the team for several weeks following back and forearm surgeries earlier this year, but is yet to play for the AFC East side this year.

Drew Rosenhaus told the Boston Globe: "Quite frankly, it's not a huge upset that up to this point he hasn't been cleared to play in a game.

"We anticipated this. Hopefully he'll be back soon, maybe even this weekend, but there's no way to know until the end of the week when his doctors make that determination."

Gronkowski, who has been limited in practice with the team this week, had 790 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in 2012.