Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes was inactive for Week 17 against the Bears and won’t play again until September after the Vikings lost to cost themselves a playoff berth.
It was the second game that Rhodes missed this season, but he was a regular on the injury report all year with hamstring, ankle and groin injuries that he believes were related because he didn’t give himself enough time to recover before getting back on the field.
“Maybe I was overdoing it and overworking my body,” Rhodes said, via the Pioneer Press. “After one injury happened, I was just trying to get back on the field as fast as possible and it caused another one, so maybe that was a lesson learned for me to not do too much when I have an injury lingering.”
In addition to leading to other injuries, playing hurt can limit a player’s effectiveness to a point where a team might be better off with someone else in his spot until he’s 100 percent. Given how thin the line was between making and missing the playoffs for the Vikings, Rhodes’ lesson is one worth remembering in 2019.