Souhan: So is J.J. McCarthy really hurt? And is he really going to practice ‘soon’?

WARE, ENGLAND - J.J. McCarthy bounced jauntily up the trail at the English country club where the Vikings are practicing this week. He was beaming and fist-bumping everyone in sight.

The Vikings’ current or future franchise quarterback had just finished watching practice, which summarizes his current status — a top-10 draft pick passing nothing but time.

McCarthy’s ankle injury, and the Vikings’ handling of it, is a mystery shrouded in secrecy wrapped in an enigma, all further confused by the spoken-word stylings of coach Kevin O’Connell.

The conspiracy theory favored by fans is that the Vikings benched McCarthy for poor performance and disguised the demotion with an overstated injury designation.

That doesn’t make much sense to me, but if that turns out to be true to any degree, the Vikings would have damaged their credibility with little to gain.

Using an injury to avoid playing him in a game would be one thing; to hold him out of practices, when what he clearly needs is more practice, would be coaching malpractice.

I don’t think that’s what they’re doing.

Conspiracies assume the cooperation or muzzling of a large number of people — McCarthy; McCarthy’s agents, family and friends; Vikings staffers and teammates; and anyone with a connection to someone in the franchise who might tell the truth.

So the truth likely either resides in a gray area (McCarthy has an injury, and the Vikings are being extra-cautious to keep him off the field while they find out what they have in Carson Wentz), or is black-and-white (McCarthy is simply too sore to move the way an NFL quarterback needs to move).

What confuses the issue is O’Connell’s question-answering methodology. Word salad? An O’Connell quote is more like a verbal rainforest.

To paraphrase O’Connell, which is as challenging as running his offense, he said he hopes McCarthy can return to practice soon … and that’s as far as he’ll go.

Wednesday and Thursday, while reporters were allowed to watch practice, McCarthy wore sweats and no pads or helmet.

After the bye, the Vikings face three dynamic defenses: the Eagles, Chargers and Lions. The Eagles and Chargers games are five days apart.

Do the Vikings want McCarthy to return at that juncture?

Here’s the better question: If the Vikings are afraid to play their second-year quarterback who was a top-10 draft pick against a good defense, what would that say about McCarthy?

Perhaps, as is often the case, the simplest explanation is correct. That would be that McCarthy, as O’Connell intimated, has a high ankle sprain that doesn’t keep him from playing catch and walking normally, but that impedes his ability to plant, throw, scramble and run well enough to play in an NFL game.

Logically, he’ll simply return to the lineup when fully healthy, unless Carson Wentz turns into 2017 Case Keenum.

“He’s such a great guy,” receiver Adam Thielen said. “He’s such a hard worker, and I think he’s one of the more mentally tough people I’ve been around. So he’s really built to handle situations like this and I’m excited to see what comes out on the other end.”

Said tight end T.J. Hockenson: “He’s in every single meeting. He’s been in the training room a lot trying to get his ankle right. He’s been asking questions, not just to me, but to the receivers, the O-line, and just making sure that he’s still locked in. Because whenever he’s healthy, obviously you know we’re expecting him to go in.”