The Indianapolis Colts are sweating over the fitness of their star defensive end Dwight Freeney ahead of Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday.

The five-time Pro Bowler picked up a low ankle sprain in the Colts’ (4/9 to win the Super Bowl) AFC Championship win over the New York Jets on January 24.

Freeney (66/1 to be the Super Bowl MVP) arrived in Miami ahead of team mates and has been undergoing a range of treatments in order to get himself fit.

Freeney doesn’t expect to take part in any practice sessions ahead of the clash with the New Orleans Saints (evens to win with a plus 4.5 advantage in the handicap betting).

The Colts will be desperate to have the former Syracuse University starter available with Freeney having 13.5 sacks to his name this season.

However, even Freeney himself admits that his participation in Sunday’s big game is doubtful and isn’t optimistic about being able to take part in every snap.

“The ankle is pretty much day to day and hopefully towards the end of the week it will start to get better,” said Freeney.

“It is early to call it, we still have some recovery to do and the decision will come on Friday or Saturday about how much I am actually going to play.

“Obviously, the competitor in me says ‘nothing is going to stop me’ but that said it is not up to me - it is up to the coach and the staff.”

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New England Patriots quarter-back Tom Brady says he isn’t concerned the pitch at Wembley could hamper his knee during Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Brady (16/1 to score the first touchdown) missed nearly the whole of last season with a major knee injury.

However, having thrown a career-best six touchdown passes during the Patriots’ (10/3 to win the ) record 59-0 victory over the Tennessee Titans, Brady looks to be back to his best.

Brady says he doesn’t expect to have any problems with his knee, while also insisting that if the Wembley pitch did begin to cut up, as it did two years ago, the Patriots would cope with it.

“I really don’t have any concerns about my knee, I’ve played in 10 or 11 games since my injury, my leg feels really strong and I’ve spent a lot of time on the practice field getting back into the rhythm of playing,” said Brady.

“I watched that game a few years ago on that turf, it’s a soccer field so I guess it’s pretty flat. The grass is a little bit longer so hopefully it’ll slow down the Tampa pass rush, that’s what I’m hoping.

New England (1/14 to beat Tampa Bay) come into the game as heavy favourites against a Buccaneers side (7/1 to win in the match result market) who have lost all six games so far this season.

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Superbowl XLIII is finally here!

After 20 grueling weeks, it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals who’ll be taking to the field at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida. Pittsburgh arrive in Tampa as massive favourites and with good reason, they have the best defense in the league and are ranked first on points allowed, total yards allowed and passing yards allowed. Their offense isn’t the best but they’ve averaged a respectable 21 points a game through 2008 – not bad considering their defense has allowed less than 14 points per game. As they are such big favourites there isn’t too much value in backing them outright, but backing them on the handicap (-6.5) at 4/5 with totesport is a lot more value for money.

Arizona went into the playoffs after winning a very poor NFC West division with a 9-7 record, only the Chargers & the Eagles went into the play-offs with a worse record. They’ve been underdogs in all of their post season games and the Card’s fans themselves surely couldn’t have thought they’d make it this far. They have one of the best offenses in the league with veteran quarter back Kurt Warner spreading the ball well on his way to a 4,500 yard season. But that doesn’t come as a surprise when you see who he has to throw to – Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin & Steve Breaston. The former is having the best season of his life, in the play-offs alone he has over 400 yards receiving and has caught 5TD passes, 3 of which came in the previous game against a very tough Philadelphia defense. With Larry Fitzgerald being in such great form it may be worth backing him to score the first touchdown (6/1) or to score the first Arizona touchdown (3/1), something that looks more likely as he’s scored the first touchdown in 2 of the 3 play-off games.

This one could go either way as Arizona’s defense seems to be playing as well as their offense and we think there could be an upset on the cards. Arizona normally get off to a great start and I don’t think Pittsburgh have the offense to keep up with them, one speculative punt that might be worth a couple of quid is on our scorecast market – Larry Fitzgerald to score the first TD and Arizona to win by 7-12 points at a huge 40/1!

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The play-offs are soon approaching and there are still a number of teams in the hunt for the 2 wild-card places. There should be some tight games this week, as week 14 brings the Philadelphia Eagles v New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys v Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Redskins v Baltimore Ravens, but it’s New York where we start, with the Jets who travel to play the San Francisco 49’s.

The Jets look a good team with Favre at centre, they have 2 great receivers in Coles and Cotchery and on a good day, their defence is one of the best. Their running back Thomas Jones is also having a great season, he’s rushed for over 1000 yards already and has 11 touchdowns, and with an offence so good it’s no surprise that they are 2nd in the league on points scored per game. Before their loss to Denver last week, they had beaten New England & Tennessee away from home, so they won’t be worried about playing a very average San Francisco team away again this week.

San Francisco haven’t been playing too badly recently but they can only seem to win against the poorer teams. They really struggle on offence, they have a good running back in Frank Gore but as they often fall behind in games, they try to throw the ball much more in an attempt to play catch-up. Their number 1 receiver’s best years are behind, and the 36 year-old Isaac Bruce doesn’t have much left in the tank, it also doesn’t bode well that the player with the 2nd most receiving yards is their running back. Their defence is one of the worst in the league, they are ranked 27th on points allowed after giving up over 26 points per game. Backing NY Jets -3.5 on the handicap @ 10/11 is one of the safest bets of the week.

New England will be looking to bounce back this week after a heavy loss against the Steelers in week 13, the last time they lost so heavily they went out the next week and hammered Denver 41-7, we think they’ll be just as fired up as they travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks. New England’s offence is still one of the best in the league, they have 3 good running backs and possibly the best wide receiver in the league in Randy Moss – having Wes Welker and Ben Watson as backup also helps. Their quarterback Matt Cassel struggled last week, but in the 2 weeks before that he’d totalled over 800 yards and 6 touchdowns – the fact that Seattle are the worst in the league against the pass means Cassel should have another great day.

Seattle are struggling on both offence and defence and are ranked 25th and 26th respectively. They have their starting quarterback playing again but they are really struggling to score, Hasslebeck has struggled with injuries and has only thrown 5TDs in the games he’s played, it doesn’t help that their lead running back has only rushed for 2TDs this season. Defensively they are still missing a lot of key players and a couple more have missed training this week in order to be fit for Sunday’s game. They really struggle against the pass and are poor against the run so we think New England’s offensive weapons will batter the Seahawks defence. New England are 10/11 to overcome a -4.5 handicap with totesport.

The AFC North division isn’t over just yet, the on form Baltimore Ravens are looking to go for their 7th win in 8 games as they take on Washington at home. In their last 2 games Baltimore’s offence & defence have been performing great – it’s seen them outscore their opponents 70-10. They got 5 interceptions in those 2 games and returned 2 of the interceptions for a TD. It’s due to the defence that the offence does so well, having those turnovers and getting sacks always starts the offence in good field position. Their QB is pretty safe, he’s thrown over 460 yards and 4 TDs in his last 2 games and didn’t turn the ball over once. They’ll be desperate to win this game as a win against the Steelers next week will see them joint top going into the last game.

Washington started the season well but have been fading lately, they’ve lost 3 of their last 4 games and that win was due to a last minute field goal against Seattle. Their defence is strong and it sees them only allowing 18.5 points per game but it’s their offence where they are really struggling. They are scoring fewer points than they are letting in (17.3 points per game) and they could find it really hard against this strong Ravens defence. Redskins’ quarterback Jason Campbell isn’t having a bad season but in his last 3 games he’s managed only 2 touchdowns and has also thrown 2 interceptions – Baltimore should easily take this by a touchdown so backing them -5.5 at 10/11 with totesport is a good bet.

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