Running back Latavius Murray said he's not behind schedule in his return from right ankle surgery, and could, if necessary, have himself ready for the regular season without participating in training camp.
"Most definitely," Murray said after today's morning walk-through. "At the end of the day, football is football. I think for me it's just making sure physically I'm OK. The mental part of it, it's a game I've been playing all my life."
Moments later, his coach, Mike Zimmer, disagreed with Murray's view on the importance of training camp.
"Well," Zimmer said, "he is a smart guy. But he needs to get out there" on the practice field.
Murray was signed in March as a free agent from Oakland. He had the surgery after that, although the Vikings were aware that the surgery was needed. A month later, the Vikings used their top draft pick on Dalvin Cook, a running back to compete with Murray for the No. 1 role in what is expected to be a running back corps by committee. Murray has missed OTAs, minicamp and has spent the first week of training camp on the physically unable to perform list.
Asked today to update his timetable for return, Murray said, "No timetable. Right now, I'm just taking it day by day. You have good days, you have bad. So I'm just trying to make more of the good right now and continue to work and get back as soon as I can.
"I had the same injury on my left ankle. Same procedure, so, as of right now, I'm not behind or anything. It's just you can't treat any injury the same. You can't treat, even if it's the same surgery, you can't treat the recovery process the same. Everyone is different. So, again, I'm just trusting the process of doing what I need to do to get back on the field."