EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer has had quite the rough week.
A couple of days before Minnesota’s second straight lopsided loss, a 20-10 defeat Monday in Chicago, Zimmer began to experience trouble with his vision. He then scratched one of his eyes during the game, which prompted team doctors to send him for further examination.
Zimmer was diagnosed Tuesday with a torn retina, which required surgery to repair. He was warned that further delay in treatment put him at risk for blindness.
“It’s probably a good thing that I scratched my eye during the game. Otherwise I may not have caught it in time,” Zimmer said Wednesday, while wearing sunglasses to limit the outside light as he held his news conference next to the team’s practice fields. “But hopefully everything will be all right.”
Zimmer had been watching film with his good eye, using reading glasses so he can write down notes in preparation for the game Sunday against Detroit.
After spending the night at team headquarters following the procedure in the morning, Zimmer then learned that offensive coordinator Norv Turner was resigning.
“Well, I do think that we’ve hit a rough spot in the season, and we need to get back on track, you know?” Zimmer said.
“This is just part, unfortunately, of some of the things that go on throughout the course of the year. Obviously the season’s a long time, and not everything’s going to go smooth, as I’ve found over the three years. So we’ll just keep trying to do the things that we have to do to continue to get better.”
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