Jan. 19, 2026, 4:45 p.m. PT
San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle had more good news on the state of his surgically repaired Achilles when he spoke with reporters Monday at the team’s locker cleanout.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan had some good news about the surgery and expressed optimism about Kittle potentially returning sooner than the team initially thought. Kittle reiterated that the surgery went well and that he’s excited about where he’s at, but he added some color to that assessment by going into detail on why the surgery was successful. It sounds like the injury wasn’t as bad as it could have been, all things considered.
“A little background into it,” Kittle said in a video posted by 95.7 the Game, “(The surgeon) said, ‘best-case scenario when you tear an Achilles is that you tear it up high by your soleus,’ which is what I did. Had a clean tear. They didn’t have to drill into my heel, and where the repair was is where there’s more blood flow. And so it takes some time off the recovery time.”
There’s still a long road ahead of Kittle who in all likelihood won’t be ready by the start of the season.
Initially it sounded like the club may not have him at all next year, or if it did they’d have him late in the season. If he’s able to come back sooner toward the middle of the year it would give him a real chance to get back into playing shape in time to be something closer to himself by the time the playoffs roll around.
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The injury was a devastating blow to the 49ers in the final few quarters of their 2025 season, but his return would be a massive lift whenever he’s able to play again in 2026.
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