Injury situation trending good for Vikings, worse for Packers
The Vikings are trending in the right direction on the injury front ahead of Sunday's critical border battle against the Packers as starters Ezra Cleveland and tight end T.J. Hockenson continue to make progress.
Cleveland, the starting left guard who missed the 49ers game with a foot injury, was limited for a second straight practice on Thursday. If he's unable to start the Vikings seem to be in good hands with backup Dalton Risner, who was solid in his first start of the season on Monday night.
Hockenson is dealing with a foot injury as well. He was limited in Thursday's practice after being held out Wednesday. There's not much concern about him considering he said Wednesday that he'll be fine come Sunday's noon kickoff.
Thursday's #Vikings injury report pic.twitter.com/AWqq59DKxe
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 26, 2023
The Packers are in a less promising situation as tight end Luke Musgrave (ankle) edge rusher Preston Smith and cornerback Jaire Alexander (back) missed practice Thursday.
Alexander was limited Wednesday so the fact that he didn't practice Thursday is a bad sign for Green Bay's defense.
"Just day by day," head coach Matt LeFleur said when asked about Alexander's back injury. "I mean it's a back, so I really don't have a whole lot to say on that. I'm certainly not an expert on backs and I don't want to pretend to be."
They also had six other players who were limited on Thursday.
- LB De'Vondre Campbell (ankle)
- G Elgton Jenkins (knee)
- RB Aaron Jones (hamstring)
- C Josh Meyers (ankle)
- T Yosh Nijman (knee)
- DT Devonte Wyatt (knee)
Wide receiver Christian Watson was a full participant for a second straight day.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.