Winfield not worried about fracture, will play Sunday

Vikings cornerback Antoine Winfield plans to play Sunday against Green Bay despite fracturing the second metacarpal in his right hand during last week's win in Houston. Winfield believes the injury occurred during a first quarter tackle of Arian Foster, with the knee of the Texans running back landing on the top of his hand and breaking the bone.

Despite immediate swelling, Winfield stayed in the game. He had an X-ray done at halftime that didn't initially turn anything up.

"I thought it was a contusion," Winfield said.

But when he had additional testing done Monday at Winter Park, the fracture showed up.

Winfield did not practice Wednesday and was wearing a cast on his right hand, admitting that the injury was still "a little tender." However, by game time Sunday, he said, he will likely play with his hand taped up and extra padding on his glove.

Winfield isn't worried about having difficulty tackling but can't say for certain how much his hand will limit him.

"It's kind of hard to squeeze right now," Winfield said. "But my pain level, I'll tolerate that. That won't be an issue."

"I mean, we don't expect it. But it happens," he said. "This is a rough sport. There are grown men running full speed at each other. With contact, sometimes things like this happen."

In other injury news ...
Defensive end Jared Allen was held out of practice with both a shoulder injury and a minor illness Wednesday. Adrian Peterson did not practice either, given time to rest the abdomen ailment he's been dealing with.