Nearly two years later, Mike Zimmer has learned to live with eye issues

A week from Wednesday will mark the two-year anniversary of the Halloween night game in Chicago when Mike Zimmer's right eye issues became a big problem. Zimmer, who'd experienced some vision issues leading up to the game, scratched his right eye during the game, and had the first of eight surgeries to address a detached retina in the eye on Nov. 1, 2016.

Nearly two years after the first surgery, Zimmer said Thursday the health of his right eye is about the same as it's been since the operations ceased. Put simply: "It sucks," he said.

"I have to put a drop in every day and then I have to wait for a few hours before I can put a contact in,'' Zimmer said. "I don't see good out of it. It is what is — it won't get any better.''

The Vikings coach said he can't read out of his right eye, even with reading glasses, and on Thursday, he said he wouldn't have been able to identify a reporter standing several feet away while looking out of his right eye. Essentially, he uses the fact that he can see something out of his right eye — even if it's blurry — to expand his field of vision beyond what it would be if he had gone blind in the eye.

Zimmer, instead, reads with his left eye, and he's learned to hunt left-handed.

"It's not bad," he said of the hunting. "It's been alright."