Adrian Peterson plans to return this season, if the Vikings make the playoffs

Adrian Peterson appears on track to play again this season.

He’s been performing well in practice and is getting close to a return after injuring his knee in Week 2 and being placed on injured reserve.

There’s just one tiny problem: Peterson said he won’t try to play if Minnesota is eliminated from playoff contention.

The Vikings are more or less in free fall right now.

After starting out the season as one of the best teams in the league, they’ve lost six of their last seven games and have scored more than 25 points just once in that span. Minnesota boasts the NFL’s second-worst offense overall and the worst rushing offense in the league.

Despite that, there’s still hope for the Vikings (6-6) to not only make the playoffs, but possibly win the NFC North, though the Lions have a two-game lead at the moment. And it would certainly help if they could jump start a unit averaging less than 300 yards per game.

The All-Pro running back is coming off a torn meniscus — his second major knee injury in the last five years — and at 31 years old, he likely doesn’t have too many great games left in him. So it makes sense that he wouldn’t want to risk his future on meaningless action. It sounds more like he’s trying to focus on using what he has left for the postseason.

Still, the Vikings won’t face any teams that are currently above .500 during the last four weeks of the season as they make a final push for a playoff berth. Even if Peterson is more of a decoy than a weapon, they could use him to open up a passing game that is starting to find success with wideouts Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen.

It’s a situation worth watching for numerous reasons. If Peterson can play and doesn’t with the Vikings still in the hunt, this could get messy real quick, making an uncertain future for the former superstar cloudier than ever.