Jackson not certain when he'll return

MANKATO — Vikings quarterback Tarvaris Jackson stayed on the field for 25 minutes after this morning’s practice throwing to wide receivers but said afterward he does not know exactly when he will be able to resume practicing with his teammates.

“[There’s] not a certain goal but just as soon as possible,” Jackson said of his return from a sprained knee. “I feel a lot better the last couple of days. I was in there [rehabbing] with [athletic trainer Eric Sugarman] just trying to do whatever they tell me to do and try to get back out here.”

Vikings coach Brad Childress said Jackson has been fitted with a special brace on his left knee that will give him more mobility. Jackson suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament during the Vikings practice on Saturday morning. He has missed the past five sessions but came out of the locker room for a second consecutive day to do some of his conditioning while his teammates practiced. Jackson is expected back on the field to do more conditioning during the one-hour special teams practice. Childress also did not say when Jackson might be back.

“Obviously, I didn’t want [this] to happen but I didn’t let it get to me like that,” Jackson said in his first comments to the media since the injury. “I just took it as just another thing testing my mental toughness. I just took it like that and just try to stay strong and stay focused.”

Jackson did say he fully expects to be back playing at 100 percent by the time the Vikings open the preseason on Aug. 14 at Indianapolis. Jackson entered camp set to compete with Sage Rosenfels for the starting job. This means both players were set to split reps with the first team. Now, Rosenfels is getting the majority of the work. Jackson, however, doesn’t feel as if he’s losing much ground. 

“No, not really,” he said. “Obviously, the guys are getting a lot more reps with the offense and everything. But I’m still in the meeting room studying every day. I’m still in there watching film, watching their mistakes, watching things that they are doing pretty good and just try to learn from things that they are doing. I’m just not able to do it physically right now but I’m still tuned in mentally.”

Jackson has a Grade 1 sprain of the MCL, meaning it’s the least serious type of sprain. Last year, he missed the final two games of the preseason after suffering a sprain of the right MCL in a preseason game at Baltimore.

“Last year it was a lot worse. A different injury last year,” Jackson said. “But I recovered a lot faster than I did last year. Last year at this time, two or three days after my injury, I wasn’t doing as much as I’m doing right now. So it’s not as [bad] as it was last year.”

Jackson, however, did have a few anxious moments in the seconds after he tripped over defensive tackle Letroy Guion on Saturday and fell to the ground. “At first I thought it was bad,” he said. “My initial [reaction] was like, ‘Please, no.’ Not an ACL or anything like that. But it turned out not to be as bad so I was happy. I didn’t want it to be what it is but I kind of look at it as it could have been a lot worse. With the way the play happened, it could have been a lot worse. My leg could have got caught in the ground. But it didn’t and I was just happy it didn’t.”