In the post-game locker room on Sunday, Vikings CB Antoine Winfield held out his injured hand for reporters to see. The back of it was so swollen it looked like he was wearing a pad. He re-injured the hand he had broke a week before in Houston and looked to be in some pain.
Winfield has not been ruled out for next Saturday’s wild-card game at Lambeau Field, but he will have to make a lot of progress in this short week.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with Antoine,” coach Leslie Frazier said on Monday. “We’ll see how he does throughout the week. He was in quite a bit of pain [Sunday], so we’ll have to see how he does throughout the week, and make a decision, maybe, later on.”
Winfield said his hand was pushed backward when he ran into a Packers tight end. It bent awkwardly and hurt so badly that he had to leave the game.
“It was too painful; I knew I wasn’t as effective as I could be,” Winfield said. "It was hard for me to get off blocks. Just didn’t have too much power in it.”
Frazier said that the biggest issue will be the pain for Winfield, but a cornerback only able to use one hand effectively is a definite handicap. He will receive treatment throughout the week, and try to get back for the Packers game.
CB Marcus Sherels filled in for Winfield, and Packers QB Aaron Rodgers certainly threw at him often. Asked why CB Josh Robinson didn’t get more of Winfield’s reps, coach Frazier said that Robinson has mostly worked on the outside, and Winfield primarily covers slot receivers.
“Marcus has been primarily our inside corner," Frazier said. “And we’ve worked Josh very limited reps inside. But there are some things we’ll have to look at for this ballgame that we may do a little bit different.”
For more Vikings news and notes, follow Joe Oberle on Twitter @CBSVikings and@joeoberle.
