Danielle Hunter Placed on IR

The injury is especially crushing for Hunter, who turned 27 years old last week. He missed the entire 2020 season with a neck injury.

Zimmer, plus teammates Everson Griffen and Dalvin Cook, said they felt terrible for one of the locker room’s most popular players.

“I can’t imagine. I really can’t imagine what he’s going through,” Griffen said. “He rehabbed his neck to get back strong and then he comes back and something like this happens to him.

“It can be very frustrating, and I know that he’s frustrated right now,” Griffen added. “But he’s got to just pick his head up and fight back just like he did last year. It’s devastating for our football team, losing one of our star players. It really hurts.”

Cook said: “Yeah, that’s my brother, man. I hate to see him go down like that. Get well soon D, we love you. Um, you know, that’s tough for us.”

Zimmer added: “It’s unfortunate that we’re going to miss the next half of the season with him, and all of last year. So, he’s a great kid and he’ll do a good job in his rehab and he’ll be ready to go.”

Hunter leads the Vikings with 6.0 sacks through seven games this season. He has 60.5 career sacks since he was a third-round pick in 2015 out of LSU.

Hunter’s presence will be missed as the Vikings try to navigate life without him for the second straight season.

The loss of Hunter means D.J. Wonnum will likely take over the starting defensive end spot opposite Griffen, who has 5.0 sacks this season but is also 33 years old. The Vikings have talked in recent weeks about trying to manage his workload.

“I feel good. Honestly, I really feel good. I woke up this morning and I felt good,” said Griffen, who played 60 snaps against Dallas. “I had acupuncture at 8 a.m. and I have a massage at 1:30. Every day [is about] recovery. Recovery grind.

“It doesn’t matter about your age. I take care of my body very well,” Griffen added. “Whatever they want me to do, have me to do, I go out there and do it for my team.”