New Orleans Saints receiver Chris Olave will miss Sunday's season finale against the Atlanta Falcons due to a blood clot detected in his lung.
He is expected to make a full recovery.
Olave provided an update via an Instagram post Thursday morning, pictured in a hospital bed.
"Thank you God for everything!," the post read, with the song "On and On" by Erykah Badu playing in the background. "Right where I need to be, life is full of unexpected twists and turns and I'm grateful to experience it. Chin up, chest out and keep it pushin. I don't want ya sympathy, just talk to God for me. Bounce back otw!"
An adjoining post showed a photo of a sign that read, "IT'S A FULL TIME JOB BELIEVING IN YOURSELF. NO DAYS OFF.'
Olave had a career year across the board for the Saints (6-10), with 100 receptions for 1,163 yards and nine touchdowns while establishing himself as the team's top receiving option.
"Chris had an illness come up, so he did not practice today," Saints Coach Kellen Moore said Thursday. "He is navigating that with our medical staff. Our medical staff is awesome and for them to get ahead of this, a lot of credit to those guys. He's in great care and we'll let the rest of the status play itself out through the week. But he'll be good to go as we navigate this and he's in great hands with (Saints team doctor John Amoss) and all those guys."
Olave matched his career high with 16 games played this season; last year was shortened to nine games after he suffered his fourth NFL concussion. After briefly considering retirement he successfully navigated his return this year, and raised his level of play after New Orleans traded receiver Rashid Shaheed and released receiver Brandin Cooks, who entered the season as the Nos. 2 and 3 receivers.
Olave was listed with an illness when he missed Wednesday's practice and that designation remained Thursday.
"I think it's just work with our medical staff and Dr. Amoss and going through that process with those guys, and then them just going through their procedure as far as identifying what could be the best solution for Chris," Moore said. "I think the main outlook in this thing is these guys are awesome, they get ahead of things. Fortunate for Chris that they were able to get ahead of this and identify something and make the necessary steps to build a plan moving forward."
