1:29Adrian Peterson isn't quite at full strength after undergoing groin surgery in January, but the Vikings running back expects to soon be healthy enough to join his teammates for the team's voluntary offseason program.
"I can't sit here and say that I'm back right now, but I am not far off at all," Peterson said Wednesday.
Peterson missed two of the team's final three games last season because of groin and foot injuries. He said he suffered the groin injury in the team's loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Nov. 3, and it clearly affected him in the second half of the season. But Peterson still finished fifth in the NFL with 1,266 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns in 14 games.
Peterson had groin surgery on Jan. 23. In a statement to announce the surgery, the Vikings said that William Meyers, the same doctor who performed Peterson's sports hernia surgery last offseason, was "able to successfully repair Adrian's abductor muscle while also doing a compartmental release." The surgery was performed at the Vincera Institute in Philadelphia.
It was the third consecutive offseason in which Peterson, who had his left knee reconstructed before his record-setting 2012 season, has gone under the knife.
Peterson said he initially had been hoping to avoid surgery for this groin injury.
"Originally it felt like a strained groin and gradually it continued to get worse and then we got to Baltimore [on Dec. 8] and that's when I had the foot injury," Peterson said. "It all came back from the previous groin injury. It felt like the foot injury was an extension of the groin, because I wasn't able to cut and be as elusive as I needed to be. But just being the competitor that I am, I didn't want to come out and say that."
Peterson carried the ball 67 times for 357 yards and a touchdown in consecutive games in Weeks 12 and 13, but he had only 58 yards on 18 carries in the two games he played during the final four weeks of the season.
