Houston Texans DE J.J. Watt played through five core muscle tears

Houston Texans star J.J. Watt played with five different torn core muscles during last season en route to winning NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors for the third time, according to published reports.

The standout defensive end played through a fully torn left adductor longus and a fully torn left adductor pectineus - two of the three muscles that connect the pelvic bone to the thigh bone.

He also had partially torn left and right abdominals and a partially torn right adductor longus.

In addition, Watt played with a broken left hand and played three games with a cast to protect it. He also had a back injury during the season.

Watt didn't miss a game while racking up a league-leading 17.5 sacks.

Watt told a Houston radio station earlier this week that he is on track to getting healthy.

"I'm doing pretty darn well," Watt said. "I feel really good. I'm back to full-fledged training. Obviously, I'm working to get back to my 100 percent tip-top shape. I am back to my full workouts, I'm back to everything.

"So now it's just building back to what I was and going above and beyond that, which I will be at by the first game of the season."