REPORT: Mike Hughes could be out for the rest of the season

The Minnesota Vikings rookie cornerback suffered an injury during Sunday’s win and the team reportedly fears it could be a torn ACL.

Getting any sort of praise from Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer is pretty rare for the majority of the players on the team’s current roster. It’s even more rare for Zimmer to rave about a defensive back in the middle of his very first NFL season.

But that’s not how it has been whenever the Vikings head coach has been asked about rookie cornerback Mike Hughes this year. Zimmer has been impressed with Minnesota’s 2018 first-round pick ever since he suited up for rookie minicamp during the offseason.

Unlike most of the Vikings’ rookie corners in the recent past, Hughes has seen the field on defense for a significant amount of time this year. In his first ever regular season game with Minnesota back in Week 1, the young defensive back even intercepted a pass and took the other way for a touchdown.

After his first five appearances in a Vikings uniform this season, it seemed like the team made a smart decision to select Hughes in the first round of last April’s NFL Draft.

However, his rookie year in Minnesota might have already come to a close.

During the Vikings’ win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, Hughes went down with a leg injury and had to be helped off the field by Minnesota’s training staff. He didn’t go back into the game and according to NFL Media’s Tom Peliserro, the Vikings fear that the rookie suffered a season-ending torn ACL.

Peliserro also reported that Hughes will undergo an MRI tomorrow and the team will officially know if the rookie’s 2018 season is over or not.

It’s unfortunate for Hughes if in fact his injury does turn out to be a torn ACL. He has been playing well this year and he was getting a good amount of time on the field with a Minnesota defense that is already full of talent.

More will be known on Monday. But for now, it seems like Hughes is just the latest promising young member of the Vikings organization to suffer a season-ending knee injury.