Minnesota Vikings coach Leslie Frazier has confirmed that Adrian Peterson will play in his first pre-season game for two years when his side take on the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Peterson did not play a warm-up match last season as he continued his recovery from a knee injury, while the reigning NFL MVP has also been held back from the Vikings' opening two matches of the current pre-season campaign.

However, Frazier believes that Friday's 20-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills shows how much his side miss Peterson when he is absent, and so has chosen to reinstate him into the team.

"Without Adrian Peterson in our scheme, it impacts our offence tremendously because he's the focal point," Frazier told The AP.

"Yeah, it definitely makes a difference. That will be obvious when we open up the season. It's obvious if you look at us from a season ago and it showed on Friday night.

"We want to be a balanced offence, but as anyone that follows us knows, our offence is going to be run through number 28, through Adrian."

Peterson rushed for 2097 yards last season, just nine yards short of the single-season record held by Eric Dickerson.