Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson is “scared’ of sustaining another hamstring injury and is working hard to make himself “injury proof”.
The 25-year-old missed seven games last season after damaging a hamstring in the Week Five loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
He sat out practice on Wednesday with the team having a day off Thursday – a two-day break that was purely precautionary.
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Jefferson told reporters: “I’m so scared for it to happen again that I’ve been overly cautious about it.
”Just trying to take care of my body in the right way, just trying to find new things that I can implement in my day-to-day life that can better help me throughout the season. I’ve definitely been working on my hamstrings a little bit more, making sure that I’m injury-proof.
“I’ll get to the point where I feel like I’m not going to think of it again. Just because I feel like I’m going to push it to where it’s way strong enough for it not to happen again. It’s all about having the confidence in it and I can go out there and play freely.”
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Head coach Kevin O’Connell insisted Jefferson was not on a maintenance plan and said the team was simply using common sense in trying to make sure their star receiver is fit when the season starts next month.
“We want to make sure his training camp progression is the right kind of progression coming off a first time for him having the type of injury he had,” O’Connell said.
“It’s more a matter of the dialogue that he has with [vice president of player health and performance Tyler Williams] and myself and making sure that our plan for him as we progress forward through the month of August has him, in his prime, optimal, physical football shape and ready to roll while also still tactically getting him prepared.”
Jefferson scored five touchdowns last season and caught for 1,074 yards.
