There were still a few hours before kickoff on Thursday at SoFi Stadium and Vikings left tackle Christian Darrisaw was on the field with offensive line coach Chris Kuper seeing if he was going to be able to play against the Los Angeles Chargers.

After putting his body through a wide array of movements, Darrisaw had a brief conversation with vice president of player health Tyler Williams, then put his headphones on and retreated to the locker room.

Not long after that exchange, the 26-year-old was officially listed as active, providing the Vikings with a major boost in a game they had to win. He ended up only playing a couple of series before taking himself out of the game.

Asked about Darrisaw after the Vikings suffered a 37-10 loss to the Chargers, head coach Kevin O’Connell commended him for doing as much as he could given the circumstances.

“He was able to workout before the game and feel like he could give it a go, and then it’s really kind of an unknown in many ways,” O’Connell said. “That leads to Christian’s dialogue with the medical staff and kind of where he thinks he’s at in his ability to go out and do his job.”

It was apparent from the onset that Darrisaw didn’t look like himself. He got beat cleanly by edge rusher Odafe Oweh on a play that resulted in quarterback Carson Wentz being taken down for a sack. That was the last time Darrisaw played in the game.

“There’s no preset number and no present management plan,” O’Connell said. “We’ve got to listen to the player and the player has to listen to his body.”

This has been a recurring theme for Darrisaw since he returned from his torn anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament. He hasn’t been able to play full games consecutively since returning to the lineup.

Those numbers speak for themselves. He played 63% of snaps (38 of 60) against the Cincinnati Bengals, 100% of snaps (76 of 76) against the Pittsburgh Steelers, 63% of snaps (41 of 65) against the Cleveland Browns, 100% of snaps (69 of 69) against the Philadelphia Eagles, and 18% of the snaps (9 of 49) against the Chargers.

Asked if he expects the trend to continuing for the rest of this season, O’Connell pushed back, noting how their schedule hasn’t exactly been normal as Darrisaw has navigated how his body feels after a game.

There was the unprecedented international swing through Dublin and London that impacted his routine between games against the Steelers and Browns. There was also the limited time for his recovery between games against the Eagles and Chargers.

The good news for the Vikings is that after their mini bye this weekend they will be back in the usual cadence.

“Now we should be in a pretty consistent Sunday to Sunday type approach,” O’Connell said. “It’s something where, hopefully, we can get back into a consistent rhythm of what Christian’s work looks like and a rhythm of what his recovery looks like.”

Though it doesn’t guarantee that Darrisaw won’t take himself out of the game moving forward, it certainly gives him a better chance to turn over in time.

“It’s no secret how critical he’s been to our success and how critical he’s been to our consistency,” O’Connell said. “I’m hoping the Sunday to Sunday schedule for the foreseeable future will help hopefully with getting a little bit more of No. 71 out there on a consistent basis.”

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