Vikes' Zimmer to have 5th, 6th eye surgeries

INDIANAPOLIS — Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer is scheduled for two more surgeries on his right eye as he struggles to regain vision from a detached retina suffered last November.

Zimmer, speaking Thursday at the NFL scouting combine, said he hopes the procedures restore 50 percent of his current limited vision. He also said he has been told he has a “high likelihood” for a similar affliction occurring in his left eye, which to this point has been unaffected.

Zimmer, who missed the Vikings’ loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 13, had a total of four procedures during the season. The fifth is penciled in for the week of April 17 and will prohibit him from flying for three weeks. The sixth, Zimmer said, will take place about two months later.

That schedule was designed to allow him to travel to Indianapolis for the combine and then to any pre-draft pro days he wants to attend.

Zimmer said he can see with his left eye now but objects are blurry. It was enough, he joked, to force him to learn “how to shoot left-handed.” Zimmer is an avid hunter.