Cautious Justin Jefferson ‘so scared’ about injuring hamstring again

Job No. 1 for Justin Jefferson is to be on the field, and both he and the Vikings are taking that quite seriously.

After Jefferson, 25, tore his right hamstring last season and missed seven games, he sat out Wednesday’s practice — purposely timed with Minnesota’s scheduled day off Thursday — with the hamstring in mind.

“I’m so scared for it to happen again that I’ve been overly cautious about it,” Jefferson told reporters. “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.”

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Coach Kevin O’Connell avoided saying Jefferson is on a maintenance plan but noted the Vikings don’t want to push him too hard ahead of this season.

“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 told reporters. “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.”

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The Vikings’ tracking data reportedly does not show Jefferson nearing any potential injury flags, so this is largely out of an abundance of caution.

“I’ll get to the point where I feel like I’m not going to think of it again,” Jefferson said. “Just because I feel like I’m going to push it 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.”

Jefferson had 68 catches for 1,074 yards and five touchdowns in 10 games last season.

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