Vikings rookie safety Lewis Cine underwent “successful” surgery on Tuesday at a London hospital to repair a compound fracture in his lower left leg, the team announced.
Cine on Tuesday was placed on injured reserve after suffering the season-ending injury in Sunday’s 28-25 win over the New Orleans Saints at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Due to the severity of the injury, he remained in the city for treatment. The procedure was performed by Aswinkumar Vasireddy, lead surgeon for the Orthopedic Trauma Group at Cleveland Clinic London.
The Vikings replaced Cine on the 53-man roster with linebacker Ryan Connelly, who was activated off the physical unable to perform list. And they released defensive lineman Jaylen Twyman and wide receiver Travis Toivonen from the practice squad. David Canter, the agent for nose tackle Khyiris Tonga, said the Vikings will sign his client off Atlanta’s practice squad, so they will need to make another move to clear a spot on the 53-man roster.
A source said Cine could return to Minnesota as soon as this weekend if all continues to go well, the key being that no infection sets in. A compound fracture is when the bone breaks the skin, and when that happens bacteria can get in and lead to an infection.
Sources said Monday that if the surgery goes well, Cine could begin to do some walking in several weeks and be on a path to return to play in 2023.
“We look forward to welcoming Lewis back to Minnesota to be around his teammates and coaches and begin the rehabilitation process with the Vikings medical staff in the very near future,” the Vikings wrote in a statement.
Cine posted a message on Twitter. It read, in part, “Thank you for all the prayers and well wishes over the last two days. … I am incredibly grateful for the care I have received from the doctors and staff at Cleveland Clinic London. … I’m looking forward to returning to Minnesota, supporting my teammates and attacking this rehab so I can get back to doing what I love to do.”
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— ⱠɆ₩ł₴ ₵ł₦Ɇ (@LewisCine) October 4, 2022
The Vikings have not immediately signed a safety to the roster to replace Cine. Safety Myles Dorn, who is on the practice squad, has been elevated twice this season and has one more roster elevation remaining. So the Vikings could elevate Dorn for Sunday’s game against Chicago at U.S. Bank Stadium and then figure out next week what to do about a fourth safety on the roster.
Tonga was a seventh-round draft pick by Chicago in 2021 out of Brigham Young and played in 15 games as a rookie, making two starts. He was waived at the start of this season and joined the Falcons’ practice squad.
Ryan Connelly, an Eden Prairie native, is back on the 53-man roster after recovering from a torn ACL suffered last December. Twyman was a sixth-round pick in 2021 who missed all of his rookie season after being shot four times as an innocent bystander in his native Washington, D.C. Toivonen is a native of Red Wing, Minn.