MANKATO, Minn. _ As far as Charles Johnson is concerned, he should get his old job back.

Johnson was a Vikings starting wide receiver for the second half of 2014 and to begin last season before he suffered a broken rib and lost his spot to Stefon Diggs. Diggs is in line to continue to start, but he has been moved to flanker to replace the departed Mike Wallace, so Johnson wants again to be the split end.

“I feel like I’m that guy,’’ Johnson said. “I feel like I should be a starter on this team.’’

Johnson has been working primarily with the first team during training camp at Minnesota State Mankato, so he very well could be back in the lineup when the regular season gets underway Sept. 11 at Tennessee.

As for last season, Johnson mostly wants to forget about it. In the third game against San Diego, he went out for a pass and soon was writhing in pain.

“I went up for the ball and landed on somebody’s foot,’’ Johnson said. “That popped the front of my rib out. It was kind of a freak accident.’’

Johnson and the Vikings downplayed the problem, simply calling it a rib injury. It wasn’t until earlier this year that Johnson revealed it was a broken rib.

“It was something that we just wanted to say, ‘rib injury,’’’ Johnson said. “We didn’t want to say what it was. There are things that we keep in house.’’

Johnson had finished 2014 strong, catching 25 of his 31 passes for 415 of his 475 yards in the final seven games. Even bigger things were expected out of him in 2015.

After his injury, though, Johnson barely played, catching just three passes. He finished the season with a mere nine receptions for 127 yards, and admits it was hard hearing people speculate what was wrong with him while not realizing how seriously he was hurt.

“Have you ever had a broken rib?’’ Johnson said. “Well, if you haven’t, let’s see you go out there (and play). I kept seeing all these rumors about was his injury serious? You try to go run around with a broken rib and see if it’s serious or not. You can’t move. You can’t do too much.’’

Johnson said he healed by the end of the season, but he barely saw the field after Diggs had become entrenched as the starter. Diggs, then a rookie, didn’t play until Johnson got hurt, and then had 25 catches for 419 yards in his first four NFL games.

Now, Johnson is determined to show the form he displayed in the second half of 2014, when he came out of nowhere after being signed away from Cleveland’s practice squad three weeks into the season. During a practice Thursday, he caught three passes, including a 30-yard touchdown during a two-minute drill.

“He’s always been the same guy to me, works hard,’’ Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said after the workout. “He’s doing the same things he’s always done.’’

Johnson’s primary competition to start is coming from Laquon Treadwell, taken with the No. 23 pick in April’s draft. Even if Johnson begins the season as the starter, Treadwell eventually could overtake him.

Still, Johnson will look to continue to have the chemistry he developed with Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater during the latter part of 2014. That included Johnson catching four passes for a career-high 103 yards, including a 56-yard touchdown reception, in an overtime win over the New York Jets.

“Charles is a guy who understands football,’’ Bridgewater said. “Having that ability to understand what’s going on has really been helping him, helping both him and I with chemistry on and off the football field.’’