Vikings' Brian O'Neill has 'significant' calf muscle injury

It doesn't good for the star right tackle.
Vikings' Brian O'Neill has 'significant' calf muscle injury
Vikings' Brian O'Neill has 'significant' calf muscle injury /

The Vikings have yet to announce specifics about the calf muscle injury sustained by right tackle Brian O'Neill in Sunday's loss to the Packers, but head coach Kevin O'Connell on Monday confirmed that it is "significant."

O'Neill will not play in Sunday's regular season finale against the Bears and despite there not being a timetable for his injury, O'Connell didn't sound optimistic about O'Neill returning any time time. 

Without O'Neill, the Vikings will start Oli Udoh at right tackle. Udoh was actually Minnesota's highest-graded offensive lineman against the Packers after O'Neill suffered the injury on Minnesota's 13th offensive play of the game. 

Backup center Austin Schlottmann's season is over after he suffered a broken fibula on the fifth offensive play of the game. He was replaced by third-string center Chris Reed, who had never taken a snap at center during a regular season game in the NFL prior to Sunday. 

Reed could very well start again against the Bears if Garrett Bradbury is out again. 

O'Connell didn't offer a timetable for Bradbury's return, but he's missed the past four games with a back injury that was worsened when he was involved in a car crash after Minnesota's comeback win over the Colts two weeks ago. 

Brian O'Neill and Austin Schlottmann are presumably out for the season, there's still no timetable for Garrett Bradbury's return, and Blake Brandel is on IR.


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Joe Nelson
JOE NELSON

Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen.  His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011.  Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play.  Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers.  Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.