Kirk Cousins has played his last game for the Vikings in the 2023 season. He will have to come back from a major injury at age 36 and sign a new contract with the team, if he is going to play another one.

An MRI on Monday morning showed Cousins tore the Achilles’ tendon in his right heel, confirming what a source said on Sunday was the quarterback’s initial diagnosis. He will need surgery on his ankle and will miss the rest of the season.

The timeline and details of his surgery will be determined this week, the team announced.

Watch head coach Kevin O’Connell’s Monday news conference here:

Cousins was injured when he dropped back on a third-and-19 from the Packers’ 22 with 10:30 left in Sunday’s game. His Achilles ruptured when he planted his cleat in the Lambeau Field grass; based on his conversation with the quarterback after the injury, coach Kevin O’Connell said Sunday, he thought Cousins’ cleat got caught in the grass at Lambeau Field.

“We were kind of calling a safe play right there, a little bit of a screen, kind of a double move in case they were aggressive in the moment,” O’Connell said Sunday. “Three-man rush and he kind of stepped up in the pocket. That is all I saw. I just know in some of my dialogue with Kirk, it seems like maybe his cleat might have gotten stuck in the ground or whatever it was. It probably isn’t right for me to speculate, I just know that it was incredibly, incredibly unfortunate in that moment.”

The 35-year-old quarterback will miss a regular-season game because of injury for the first time in his career. For the Vikings, Cousins’ injury means they’ll prepare for a regular-season game for the first time in six years without knowing who their starter will be.

O’Connell said Monday the Vikings would consider all their options at quarterback, adding, “You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve received on my cell phone in the last 24 hours.”

As the Vikings prepare for the Falcons, rookie Jaren Hall seems like the obvious candidate to start, with practice squad QB Sean Mannion backing him up while Nick Mullens recovers from a low back injury that still has him on injured reserve.

The Vikings could look to sign Colt McCoy, who spent three years with O’Connell in Washington and backed up Cousins there. McCoy visited the Vikings in October; he wasn’t able to agree to a deal with the team at the time, but could be an immediate fit for the Vikings now that their QB picture has changed.

The Vikings could also make a move before the NFL’s trade deadline at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday.

Between the start of the 2013 season (when he was dealing with a foot sprain he suffered in the preseason) and Dec. 2021, when Cousins practiced through a cracked rib, he had never even shown up on an injury report. He was not listed on one during the 2022 season, either, though Netflix’s “Quarterback” series showed Cousins dealt with injuries to his ribs last November.

Since he became a full-time starter in 2014, Cousins had only missed two games: the 2019 regular-season finale, when the Vikings rested starters before the playoffs, and the Vikings’ 37-10 loss to the Packers, after Cousins had tested positive for COVID-19.

After the Vikings and Cousins paused talks on a new for the quarterback in March, the team added two void years to his contract, which will make him a free agent after this season. The Vikings had kept open the possibility of a new deal with Cousins after the 2023 season, but the quarterback, who will turn 36 next August, would likely have to accept a smaller deal from Minnesota or another team as he recovers from his injury.