Peterson to start running on land this week

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is scheduled to start running on land this week, according to head coach Leslie Frazier, as part of his rehabilitation from ACL surgery.

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is scheduled to begin running on land this week, according to what head coach Leslie Frazier told reporters Wednesday at the NFL owners meetings.

“This is the beginning stages of running,” Frazier said, according to 1500 ESPN. “So, we'll have a better gauge in another, let's say, one or two weeks as to what kind of progress he's going to make. But we've got to determine if he's going to have any swelling after the first time he runs, when he begins cutting and turning and twisting.”

Peterson tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left on Dec. 24 and had surgery performed by Dr. James Andrews on Dec. 30. With Peterson running this week, it puts his eight- to nine-month rehabilitation on schedule.

The Vikings are hoping he will be available in some capacity at the start of the regular season, but expectations are that Toby Gerhart will receive the majority of the workload early in the season.

“We expect most people to recover from this injury in eight to nine months, and instead of comparing Adrian to any other player at any level that’s had an anterior cruciate ligament, and they happen every day, I would really like Adrian to stand on his own merit because Adrian, I feel, is very unique,” Vikings athletic trainer Eric Sugarman said two days after the injury. “If there’s anyone that’s going to be able to recover from this injury, it’s Adrian Peterson. You may ask why? It’s because Adrian has a great work ethic. Adrian has the DNA to heal quickly, which he has shown in the past.”

Peterson had a piece of his patellar tendon grafted to his ACL as part of the surgery, with Sugarman calling that the “gold standard” of ACL surgeries.

With Peterson beginning to run on land, he is in Phase 4 of his rehab, according to Sugarman. Phase 5 will come at about the four-month mark, which would be late next month.

That is when “you don’t have really many restrictions at all as far as what you can and can’t do safely,” Sugarman said two weeks after the surgery. “But then, of course, it just takes several months to get all your strength back, get your function back, get your agility back and all that power and burst and all that stuff you see him do on the field. … We kind of have a calendar mapped out and a plan in place, and we’re all comfortable with it.”

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