Vikings’ Peterson back after allergy scare

Published 8:41 am Wednesday, August 1, 2012

MANKATO — Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has resumed his rehabilitation after a scary allergic reaction that sent him to the hospital.

Peterson picked right up where he left off in his recovery work on his surgically repaired left knee Tuesday, the day after eating jambalaya in the team’s training camp cafeteria caused shortness of breath and his face to swell.

This time? He had hot dogs.

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Peterson said he eats jambalaya with seafood all the time, so he is not sure why his body reacted the way it did. But it sure told him it didn’t like what he ate.

“Like 20 minutes after I ate, I went to lay down and felt my throat itching and my ears itching and all of a sudden my face swelled up. I couldn’t breathe out of my nose,” Peterson said.

He called head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman, who rushed to his room in the team’s residence hall with a doctor to help stabilize him. They stuck him with an “EPI” pen so he could breathe better, before he was taken to the hospital.

Peterson is awaiting blood tests to determine the source of the allergy.

Meantime, he is pushing to persuade the Vikings to let him return to practice with the rest of the team.

He is currently on the physically unable to perform list, doing drills with Sugarman on the side. He said Tuesday’s workout left him rejuvenated.

“I definitely want to play a preseason game, and that’s the only way to get back to normal,” Peterson said. “Going out there and … cutting and dodging guys and playing football. Getting back out on the field. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to do that.”

Suiting up for the Sept. 9 opener, of course, is still Peterson’s primary goal.

“I feel like I will be ready to play. There’s still time,” he said.

Also Tuesday, tight end John Carlson sprained the medial collateral ligament in his knee and will miss a few weeks of practice. Head coach Leslie Frazier said the team doesn’t believe the ligament is torn. Carlson was slated for an MRI.

“It heals by itself, so it’s a little bit more of a pain-tolerance thing, depending on how he feels,” Frazier said.

Backup offensive tackle DeMarcus Love, the team’s sixth-round draft pick last year, has a shoulder injury and will also miss a few weeks of practice.