Adrian Peterson among 8 who miss Vikings’ practice

The Minnesota Vikings don’t have anything but pride on the line as they prepare for their Week 17 clash with the Detroit Lions. Still, pride is a great motivator, so expect the Vikings to come out strong.

Though Minnesota hasn’t officially released the injury report just yet, Ben Goessling of ESPN.com is reporting that eight players missed Vikings’ practice with injures on Tuesday.

"The Vikings won’t put out their first injury report of the week until Wednesday, but they had an extensive list of players not practicing on Tuesday.Running backs Adrian Peterson and Toby Gerhart, cornerback Shaun Prater, safety Harrison Smith, linebackers Larry Dean and Audie Cole and defensive tackles Fred Evans and Letroy Guionwere all sitting out of practice during the portion open to the media on Tuesday."

Perhaps the most unfortunate name on this list for Minnesota is Adrian Peterson, who did play in last Sunday’s game against Cincinnati, but was pulled to protect his sprained foot.

Here’s what head coach Leslie Frazier had to say about Peterson yesterday, also according to Goessling:

"“I think there were some moments in that game where he did some good things and some other moments where we just weren’t sure he’d have the burst we normally see, so we all want to see if he’s better this week with some more time,” Frazier said. He later added, “We always want to do the right thing by him when it comes to playing the game of football. He means so much to our franchise and organization so we have to be wise when talking about how to use him.”"

Remember, today’s injury report wasn’t an official report from the team, and there are still plenty of days before Sunday.

The Vikings were probably just holding Peterson out for precautionary reasons, and this report isn’t an indication of what his status will be for the Vikings’ final game of the season.