While the Vikings gave a grim Dalvin Cook shoulder injury update, it’s not all bad news.
When Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook was carted away from Sunday’s game against the 49ers, fans expected the worse.
Indeed the news on Cook’s injury isn’t good, as NFL Network is reporting the Vikings star tore his labrum after dislocating his shoulder in Sunday’s loss.
It’s not all bad news, however.
According to Ian Rapoport, there’s hope that Cook will return before the end of the season and may end up missing only a handful of weeks.
“Dalvin Cook tore his labrum while dislocating his shoulder yesterday, sources said the MRI revealed. But the ailment is not season-ending. The hope is this is like 2019, when the team rests Cook a few games to have him healthy for a playoff run,” Rapoport reported.
With the Vikings on the playoff bubble but clinging to life, there’s a bittersweet sense of relief that things didn’t go as poorly as they initially seemed.
Dalvin Cook shoulder injury: Dislocated shoulder recovery time
This is where things get a little dicey for Cook and the Vikings. The standard recovery time for a dislocated shoulder is 12-16 weeks, depending on the severity. Usually, someone will be able to resume most activities within two weeks, but it’s medically recommended to avoid heavy lifting and sports involving shoulder movements for between 6 weeks and 3 months.
On the surface, that means Cook is out for the remainder of the season. However, players have returned from dislocated shoulders much sooner than recommended and played through the pain. Most famously, Emmitt Smith played with a dislocated shoulder in the Super Bowl, absorbing an unfathomable amount of pain in the process.
Cook is without a doubt done for the next handful of weeks, which might be a blessing in disguise for the Vikings. Minnesota’s upcoming schedule is against teams with a combined record of 1-9-2, with games against the Lions, Steelers, and Bears upcoming before back-to-back showdowns with the Rams and Packers.
Minnesota should theoretically be able to handle the Lions and Bears without Cook, and the Steelers are in shambles which makes a matchup against their defense more about what Kirk Cousins can do to a questionable secondary.
The Vikings season is far from over, and so too appears to be Cook’s. If Minnesota can handle business in its three upcoming games and enter the final weeks of the season 8-6, it stands to reason that Cook returning is a serious possibility.
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