Hunter underwent an operation to repair a herniated disc in his neck, a season-ending injury Zimmer called a “little tweak” on Aug. 27, nearly two weeks after Hunter last practiced. Hunter initially thought the injury was due to a poor night’s rest, according to Zimmer, as the team didn’t have the full scope of the injury leading up to the season. Zimmer said the team realized it was a more significant injury after an MRI “sometime during training camp.”
“When you guys give me crap about this thing being a tweak, when it all started, he woke up and thought he slept on his neck wrong,” Zimmer said Wednesday, “so that's why it was a tweak.