Udeze's brother, Thomas Barnes, proved to be a 100 percent match and doctors are optimistic about Udeze's chances of making a recovery. His cancer was declared to be in remission in April.

Udeze is confident he will be playing football again for the Vikings in 2009. The team placed him on the reserve/non-football injury (NFI) list this spring, meaning they were not obligated to pay him for this season.

The team, however, said it would pay Udeze his base salary of $807,500 for 2008 so he could concentrate on his recovery.

This was to have been the final season of the five-year contract Udeze signed with the Vikings in 2004 after the team made him its first-round pick. But under the rules of the NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement, "a player on NFI who is in the final year of his contract will have his contract tolled."

That means Udeze's contract won't run during the 2008 season and thus now will go through 2009.

"Isn't that crazy?" Udeze said. "It will be good because you can work up your resume again, show everybody that you're healthy again."

Udeze also is thankful to the Vikings for guaranteeing his money for this year.

"I'd say anybody dealing with this, especially in my position being a professional athlete, they want to know where they stand," he said. "I feel like I've been playing at a reasonable level but I never felt like I've tipped the scales of what I can do. Nobody knows which way the organization is going to pull you or want you in the future or if they've just kind of had enough with you.

"I just told myself with everyday that I go out there, everybody sees that I do the best I can. When I found out the news (of the Vikings guaranteeing his salary) I was kind of taken back by it."

CAMP CALENDAR: The Vikings will report to Mankato, Minn., on July 23 and open practices on July 25. The Vikings will practice against the Kansas City Chiefs on July 31 in River Falls, Wis., and also hold night practices on July 26 and Aug. 2 in Mankato.

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