Photo - Vikings.com

By: Aj Mansour | KFAN.com
@AjKFAN

Minneapolis, MN - With one day remaining before the official injury reports are released for this weekend's playoff games, Antoine Winfield took it into his own hands to let everybody know that he will be playing against the Packers this weekend.

"I have the offseason to heal up," Winfield told us Thursday afternoon. "I'll definitely be out there playing Saturday night."

Winfield, who has been severely limited during this week's practice sessions, was present on a limited basis again today but was showing off a newly designed white cast on his injured right hand. The cast is specially designed to allow his fingers, thumb and wrist to move while a hard bodied piece will be protecting the top of his hand where the fracture occurred. It functions much the same way that a broken-nose mask does on the basketball court in which the pressure and impact is redirected away from the injury.

Antoine seemed confident that this cast will do the trick compared to last week when he simply had a glove with a little pad strapped to the top of his hand. "It wasn't effective at all," Winfield joked.

"I tried to go last week," Winfield said. "I played two quarters and the pain was just a little too much. This week I'll have a little more protection so I should be able to make all four."

Last week, Winfield was forced to withdraw from the matchup with the Packers in the second-quarter when press coverage on the Greg Jennings touchdown play proved to incur too much pain for the fourteen year veteran to continue. But this week is different, if the same situation rears it's head this weekend, Winfield said he's not coming out.

"Absolutely (I finish)," Winfield claimed. "I'm not coming out of this game. As I said I have the whole offseason to recover to so I'll be good."