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During his press conference earlier in the week, Minnesota Vikings’ head coach Mike Zimmer said that the team was still weighing its options on what to do with Adrian Peterson’s torn meniscus. Today, it appears that Peterson and the team have made their decision.
#Vikings RB Adrian Peterson told me he's planning to have surgery on Thurs to repair his meniscus. He's "doing it with faith and optimism."
— Josina Anderson (@JosinaAnderson) September 21, 2016
According to Josina Anderson of ESPN, Peterson will have surgery on Thursday to repair the meniscus in his right knee. Peterson suffered the injury in Minnesota’s 17-14 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football.
It sounds like this is not going to be a trimming of the meniscus, which would have a recovery time of a few weeks. According to another tweet by Anderson, it’s something much more significant.
Peterson has what is known as "bucket handle tear." I'm told that's a minm of 3-4 months out & up 6months usually. Again Peterson has faith.
— Josina Anderson (@JosinaAnderson) September 21, 2016
If this is the case, Peterson may be out long enough where the team might choose to put him on injured reserve and bring him back later on in the season. In a rule change this year (that I apparently missed), Peterson doesn’t have to be designated as “IR-return” if that’s the case. The team can simply put him on IR so that he doesn’t count against the 53-man roster, and bring him back when he’s ready. If Peterson does go on injured reserve, it would be at least six weeks before he could practice and eight weeks before he could play in a game, per NFL rules.
In his stead, the Vikings will turn to the duo of Jerick McKinnon and Matt Asiata. When Peterson missed 15 games in 2014, that pairing rushed for over 1,100 yards.
We’re hoping that the team will provide more specifics at some point today. When they do, we’ll have the news for you right here.