EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Minnesota Vikings leading receiver Percy Harvin will miss his third straight game with an ankle injury.
Harvin, who has a team-high 62 catches and 677 receiving yards and is the NFL's leading kickoff returner with a 35.9-yard average, did not travel with the team for Sunday’s NFC North game against the Green Bay Packers. Harvin, who has been out since spraining his ankle against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 9, was listed as doubtful for the game on Friday, and coach Leslie Frazier didn’t sound optimistic about Harvin’s chances of being ready after he missed practice Thursday and Friday.
"He did some drills catching the football but not the cutting that we’d like to be able to see," Frazier said following Friday’s practice.
Harvin had returned to practice Wednesday in a limited capacity to test out his injured ankle but was still noticeably favoring the ankle and still had a slight limp. Harvin was listed as doubtful heading into last week’s game at Chicago, too, and didn’t make the trip. Frazier said Harvin, who hasn’t been able to apply much pressure or weight on the sprained ankle, is mostly restricted from cutting, though Frazier said he hasn’t suffered any setbacks.
"It seems like the ability to push off and change direction," Frazier said of what was bothering Harvin most.
Without Harvin in Week 10, Minnesota put up 403 yards of total offense and a season-high 34 points in beating Detroit. But last week, the offense struggled at Chicago with just 258 total yards and 144 passing yards, while dealing with at least seven dropped passes.
Harvin and the team were hopeful he’d return following the Week 11 bye, but he still hadn’t recovered enough to participate.
"No real setbacks, just hasn’t made the improvement we hoped," Frazier said, adding that he doesn’t second-guess the decision to let Harvin continue playing on the injured ankle the week he was hurt. After suffering the sprain, Harvin had the ankle re-taped and came back in the game.
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