Jerick McKinnon feels good about where he is in his rehab. His right knee, twice surgically repaired, also feels good.
But the 49ers running back expects to know more soon after workouts with Adrian Peterson at Peterson’s gym in Houston.
“I feel like it’s my last test to really see how it feels,” McKinnon told Matt Barrows of TheAthletic.com. “There’s a lot of hard work going on down there. That’s really where I’m going to amp it up as hard as I can and see where it goes.”
Peterson has served as a mentor for McKinnon since the Vikings drafted McKinnon in 2014.
McKinnon said his knee feels normal, absent the pain and soreness he experienced last year while trying to return from ACL surgery. McKinnon twice tried to return to practice last offseason before doctors shut him down.
He underwent another season-ending surgery to bolster the original ACL graft with bone marrow from his hip and to shave off a problematic bone spur in the knee, according to Barrows.
“There were a lot of things back then that were tough,” McKinnon said. “I feel now that I’m getting back to where I was effortlessly.”
McKinnon received medical clearance in February and has continued working his way back in his hometown of Marietta, Georgia, this spring.
McKinnon, 28, has not played a regular-season game since 2017, his final season in Minnesota.