UPDATED

After exhausting all options in an attempt to overcome a debilitating injury and make his season debut, Wild veteran Zach Parise underwent back surgery Tuesday morning and is expected to be sidelined for eight-to-10 weeks, multiple well-placed sources tell The Athletic.

Parise was diagnosed with a herniated disk during the 2015-16 season and missed the entire 2016 playoffs due to an injury that caused numbness and a lack of strength in one of his legs. While Parise played the entire 2016-17 season without missing games due to his back, the issue flared up once again two weeks before this season’s training camp.

Parise, 33, has apparently felt little to no back pain, but he has experienced persistent, intense pain in one of his legs, sources say.

The operation would be to remove part of the disk that is squeezing against the nerve. It’s a non-invasive surgery that will keep him off the ice completely for a month. After four weeks, Parise will be allowed to start skating without shooting pucks or taking contact. The goal is for him to return to game action potentially four weeks after that.

Parise, who ranks third in Wild history with 124 goals, is said to be beyond frustrated.

After what he has previously said was a great summer of skating and working out, the injury came out of nowhere one day when he was trying to tie his skates. He skated on his own for much of camp without playing any exhibition games. He hoped to debut opening night until suffering a setback. The Wild reeled him back and kept him out of the first four games.

In between those games, he practiced four times until the nerve flared up during last Monday’s practice. The pain in his leg hasn’t departed since. On Tuesday, Parise will miss his seventh consecutive game to start the season.

Surgery has always been Parise’s last resort, but it sounds like he agonized over the decision and realized there’s nothing more he can do without getting the injury surgically repaired.

Coach Bruce Boudreau said Monday he hopes to provide a Parise update on Tuesday.

In the meantime, the Wild could be getting last year’s leading scorer, Mikael Granlund, back in the lineup as early as Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks.

Granlund practiced fully Monday on his usual line with Jason Zucker and Mikko Koivu. He missed the past five games with a groin injury, an injury he aggravated during the season opener in Detroit.

Granlund said he strained his groin in practice the day before. He badly wanted to play this past weekend in Winnipeg and Calgary, but the doctors and team didn’t want to risk his health with forwards Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter also injured.

“I hope it’s [Tuesday], but I thought it was on Friday and I thought it was on Saturday, too,” Boudreau said when asked if Granlund may play against the Canucks. “If it’s [Tuesday], great. If it’s Thursday, great. The sooner we get him in the lineup, the better it is for our team.”

As the cap-strapped Wild look to accrue salary-cap space, minor-leaguers Luke Kunin, Zack Mitchell and Cal O’Reilly spent the day with Iowa. The Wild recalled Kunin and Justin Kloos from the minors late Monday. If Kloos, a former University of Minnesota forward, plays, it’ll be his NHL debut. The fact the Wild didn’t call up a third forward may indicate Granlund is playing.

During Monday’s practice, assistant coach Darby Hendrickson and defenseman Gustav Olofsson both suited up as forwards.

“He’s looking pretty good,” Boudreau quipped about Hendrickson, a former NHL and Wild forward. “I might have to talk about a contract for that man. It’s the hand we’ve been dealt. You either get mad and frustrated or you make stuff out of it. In practice, sometimes we may need a defenseman to play up front. [Olofsson] is starting to get better at that, plus he’s getting better at defense. We don’t want Darby practicing all the time, but on a day like today, it’s a good thing.”

(Top image credit: Brad Rempel, USA Sports)