Bulls' Zach Collins speaks about season-ending toe surgery and his future

In a tough moment, Bulls big man Zach Collins showed his character.

Collins recently had found out he was headed for season-ending toe surgery and, while lifting weights at the Advocate Center, ran into coach Billy Donovan.

What did Collins say to Donovan? He apologized. On Sunday, he explained why.

‘‘I just told him, ‘I’m sorry, man,’ ’’ Collins told the media two days before his scheduled surgery Tuesday. ‘‘I thought I had a lot more to give him this year. Unfortunately, between the wrist and the toe, I just didn’t have a chance to show it.

‘‘I thought I had a really good summer. I was really looking forward to helping the team. It’s been a frustrating year injury-wise as a whole for the team, but individually I knew I had more to give him and felt like the team would have been in a better spot had I not gone through all these injuries.’’

Not everyone, however, is a 6-10 big man who plays with the kind of physicality few on the Bulls do.

That’s why the injury to Collins was so detrimental to what Donovan wanted from the Bulls. All the talk last summer and into fall camp was about ramping up the physicality. Then Collins suffered a wrist injury, came back for 10 games to help the Bulls go 6-4, then suffered the toe injury.

The Bulls hoped it would be a small setback, but it never improved.

‘‘We tried to give it every chance we could to get it to heal, and there comes a certain point where you start messing with the outcome of the surgery if you wait too long,’’ Collins said. ‘‘We’re at that point right now. The toe just didn’t get to the point where we wanted it to. We’re at eight weeks now. We just had to kind of bite the bullet and make sure that [even if] we can’t get back this year, we can show everyone that the toe is fine and it’s not going to be a problem in the future.’’

That is important for Collins to show, given that he will be an unrestricted free agent in July. Donovan said Saturday that Collins would be back if things were up to him, but that’s not his call.

Collins, however, made it clear where he wants to play next season.

‘‘I’d love to be back here,’’ Collins said. ‘‘I feel like I came here last year at a time where I was out of the lineup [with the Spurs], and once I got here I was able to play a lot, got a lot of confidence back, got a lot of rhythm. I think the style we play here is just conducive to the success for myself and that I fit in well. I would love to build on that.’’

Simons says

Guard Anfernee Simons missed the Bulls’ game against the Knicks with an injury to his left wrist suffered Saturday against the Pistons. There is no definitive timetable for his return.

Simons is scheduled to see a hand specialist and to get imaging done Monday.

‘‘He’s pretty sore right now,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘They just want to find out what’s going on in the hand.’’

Minute men

Guards Josh Giddey and Tre Jones and forward Jalen Smith will remain on minutes restrictions as they recover from lower-body injuries. Donovan said all three are supposed to play less than 24 minutes a game.