Vikings: Kirk Cousins positive for COVID, will miss 1st preseason game
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) jokes with teammates at the NFL football team's practice facility in Eagan, Minn., Friday, Aug. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Stacy Bengs)
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins will miss the team’s first preseason game after testing positive for COVID-19.
The team announced the news Friday, a day after Cousins was held out of practice due to an undetermined illness after he reported that he wasn’t feeling well.
Minnesota is set to play the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday afternoon in the first of three preseason games.
Cousins’ absence will leave backup quarterbacks Sean Mannion and Kellen Mond to play Sunday for Minnesota.
Cousins was also forced to sit out five days of training camp last year due to the NFL’s rules for close contacts to confirmed cases of COVID-19. He also tested positive for COVID in December, forcing him to miss Minnesota’s game in Green Bay that officially pushed the Vikings out of the playoff race.
The league suspended all coronavirus protocols in March.
The current recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is for people who test positive to isolate from others for at least five days. Isolation can end, the CDC says, if they are fever-free for 24 hours without medication and experiencing improvement in symptoms.