WARE, Hertfordshire, England — The diagnosis for Vikings captain Brian O'Neill is better than it could have been.

The starting right tackle and multiyear captain has been diagnosed with a sprained MCL, Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell said Tuesday morning in a media session with Twin Cities media members who traveled to England.

O'Neill suffered the injury while being a part of Minnesota's field goal protection group during Will Reichard's successful 41-yard attempt early in Sunday's game against Pittsburgh.

The Steelers made contact with Vikings long snapper Andrew DePaola and Joe Huber, who was lined up immediately to DePaola's left.

Cameron Heyward held Huber down as Ben Skowronek tried to leap over the gap between Huber and DePaola. Skowronek did not cleanly jump over Huber and DePaola. The receiver knocked DePaola into Huber and then O'Neill.

O'Neill was replaced by veteran swing tackle Justin Skule, who had filled in for Christian Darrisaw in Minnesota's first two games of the season. He underwent an MRI in Ireland after the game.

"He avoided the serious-nature knee injuries that, when you first go out there as a head coach and you see him down like that, you're glad you can rule out a lot of those other things," O'Connell said. "I would consider him week-to-week, and with where our bye is, I don't necessarily see short-term IR (Injured Reserve) as being a necessity at this point, just because, with the rules of that not counting toward that time frame.

"What this allows him to do is he can be totally, 100% committed to his rehab here, because he's doing his rehab where he sleeps," O'Connell added. "It's as simple as walking down the hall to go to [Vice President of Player Health and Performance] Tyler [Williams] in the group's [rehab] room, and then, during the bye week, we'll get him wherever we can, and then we'll see where he's at coming out of the bye."

After playing Cleveland in Week 5, Minnesota is scheduled to have its bye in Week 6, host Philadelphia in Week 7 (Oct. 19) and visit the L.A. Chargers in Week 8 (Oct. 23).

O'Connell was asked about other injuries that have affected the team, including center Ryan Kelly leaving Sunday's game in concussion protocol for the second time in three weeks. Kelly left Minnesota's Week 2 game against Atlanta in the protocol and returned to play against Pittsburgh.

Michael Jurgens replaced Kelly against Atlanta, started against Cincinnati and again filled in for Kelly against Pittsburgh. Had he suffered an injury, the Vikings would have moved Blake Brandel, who started at left guard for Donovan Jackson (wrist injury) to center, and Huber would have played left guard.

The Vikings have 10 offensive linemen rostered but had eight available against the Steelers (Jackson and reserve tackle Walter Rouse were inactive).

The status Sunday prompted coaches to discuss what would happen if another injury occurred, and O'Connell said tight end Josh Oliver may have been pressed into an emergency situation.

O'Connell said the team will continue to evaluate combinations of players and roles. He emphasized that he was impressed by left tackle Darrisaw playing all 76 plays in his second game of the season.

"I was so proud of him, and that should bode really well for him moving forward," O'Connell said.

Linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel played 61 snaps in Minnesota's opener at Chicago but missed Week 2. He played eight impactful snaps against Cincinnati in Week 3, recording 2.0 sacks, but remains on the mend because of a neck injury.

"I don't expect him to practice this week, but what I would say is he's rehabbing, and he's feeling like he's progressing," O'Connell said. "We're evaluating every avenue and all options to get him feeling 100 percent to get back out there, and I'm hoping that timeline is ongoing and we're on our way to doing so."

O'Connell also was asked about quarterback J.J. McCarthy potentially returning to practice in some capacity this week.

McCarthy made his first career start in Week 1 but left the Falcons game with a high-ankle sprain. Carson Wentz has started the past two games in place of McCarthy.

"My hope is … maybe not necessarily early on — we're going to handle Wednesday, probably in a unique way, from what could be kind of a hybrid day, but as we get into Thursday and Friday, I'm hoping we can at least get him out there and get him taking some drops and starting to get back in the normal rhythm of the practice week," O'Connell said. "Because you're really going back to, he had a 'fast Friday' before that Atlanta game, but you're really going all the way back to the Chicago game, to when he had a normal circumstance of practice to be able to stack days together. It will all depend on kind of where he's at with the benchmarks of being able to go out there and start moving around a little bit."

O'Connell said he believes the Vikings will be opening the 21-day evaluation windows for fullback C.J. Ham and outside linebacker Tyler Batty. Both were placed on Injured Reserve/Designated to Return when Minnesota was making roster reductions to 53 players.

"Both of those guys should have their windows opened and start working their way toward [returning]," O'Connell said. "When their return would be, I don't know. It could be as early as this weekend. It could be at any point in time during that 21 days."

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