INDIANAPOLIS — Andrew Luck looks healthy and sounds confident.

All he has to do now is prove he can still sling a football.

After spending six weeks rehabbing his throwing shoulder in the Netherlands, the Colts’ quarterback returned to Indianapolis on Friday with a promising prognosis.

“The pain has significantly gone down and that’s why I’m so optimistic,” Luck said in his first public comments in more than two months. “I feel really good today. I do not feel like I need another surgery. I believe in the process I’m in right now.”

Luck even hopes to participate in the Colts’ offseason workout this spring. It’s the most encouraging news Indy’s increasingly anxious fan base has heard all season.

But if Luck’s recovery has taught the Colts (3-12) anything, it’s this: There are no guarantees.

Team officials believed the typical six- to nine-month rehab process following January surgery for a partially torn labrum, would put Luck back on the field in September. Instead, he didn’t even start throwing a football until early October. Two weeks later, the throwing regimen stopped when Luck complained of soreness before going on season-ending injured reserve Nov. 2.

Still, he is not 100 percent and he hasn’t resumed throwing, either.

But Luck’s words are a welcome development for a team heading into a potentially tumultuous offseason.