J.J. McCarthy is dealing with soreness in his right knee and did not participate in the annual night practice on Monday at TCO Stadium. It’s unclear if McCarthy will travel with the Vikings on Tuesday when they leave for Cleveland in advance of joint practices against the Browns.

The announcement from head coach Kevin O’Connell came as a surprise after McCarthy starred over the weekend in the preseason game between the Vikings and the Las Vegas Raiders. He certainly looked the part in his debut, finishing 11 of 17 on pass attempts for 188 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

“We’re going to continue an evaluation on him and get some more testing done,” O’Connell said. “He’s a very important player so we want to make sure we’re smart about it.”

Asked if he noticed a specific play that caused the soreness while rewatching the film, O’Connell replied, “We’re trying to figure out maybe when it happened.”

On the final snap McCarthy took in the preseason game, he threw a perfect pass to veteran receiver Trent Sherfield for a long touchdown, then looked unbothered as he celebrated on the sideline. He also appeared to be OK in the locker room postgame only to arrive at TCO Performance Center roughly 48 hours later with the soreness in his right knee.

Now the Vikings will hold their breath hoping it isn’t anything serious.

“He was going to get some more work with potentially the first group even tonight so hopefully we can maintain the plans we’ve had for him,” O’Connell said. “He’s really done a great job throughout training camp whatever we’ve asked of him.”

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