FOXBORO -- Dont'a Hightower gave as best an update on his injured hamstring as he could Friday.
"Right now it's a day-to-day thing. It's going to be up to team athletic trainer Jim Whalen and Coach Belichick," he said in the locker room. "But each day it's getting better, I'm feeling better, I'm moving around great. So it's going to be a game-time decision; it's going to be up to them."
Hightower was injured during the first quarter last Sunday when he ran through Bills running back C.J. Spiller en route to sacking quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. He played just nine of 77 offensive snaps.
"It was definitely hard going down, but Tracy White did a really good job of stepping in and doing my job," he said. "Definitely well-prepared. He's a great player. Rob Ninkovich and everybody else did a great job picking up where I left off. Hopefully I'll be able to get out there this weekend so we don't have to go through that again."
When asked if he was fighting through pain, the linebacker shook his head.
"No pain. I'm out there, I'm running around and doing everything I can but again, each day it's a day-by-day thing and we're going to have to see about that."
New England plays the Broncos Sunday. If Hightower is inactive, not only would it be the first missed start of his rookie career, it would be the first missed game.
The decision is out of his hands at this point.
"It's up to coach," Hightower said. "If he feels like I'm ready to go, then I'm going to go out there and I'm going to do what I can."