Niners Nation
49ers’ George Kittle says he plans to return Sunday vs. Falcons
“Kittle, speaking to the media Thursday for the first time since the injury, said he knew something was wrong immediately and that the injury was actually a “full tear” of his hamstring.
“I just felt like a rubber band snapped in my hamstring,” Kittle said. “I was like, ‘Ah, I’ve just got to go to the locker room after that one.'”
According to Kittle, he got a bit lucky with where the tear in his hamstring was, as it did not completely tear away from the bone. Because of that, Kittle’s recovery time was significantly less than the three to six months it can take for a more severe tear to heal.“
Could 49ers’ Fred Warner return this season? John Lynch, surgeon don’t dismiss it (paywall) “Dr. Kenneth Jung, a foot and ankle surgeon who is a consultant to the Los Angeles Rams, didn’t dismiss the idea that Warner could return this season, but termed it “doubtful.” Jung noted the timeline for such an injury is three to six months, but the best-case scenario requires, among other factors, that damage is limited to bones and ligaments.
He said the force in a fracture-dislocation can often result in cartilage damage, which can extend the timeline well beyond three months. Cartilage, which is smooth material that covers the end of the bones within the ankle joints, takes longer to heal because it lacks a blood supply. Jung said cartilage damage might not have been detected until Warner’s surgery.
“Sometimes with these dislocations the bones clearly come out of joint and so you can have injuries to cartilage that may not get picked up on an X-ray,” said Jung, who works at Cedars-Sinai Orthopaedics in Los Angeles. “Oftentimes you’ll assess it with an MRI or with arthroscopy at the time of surgery.”
Whenever Warner returns, Jung said there is a “very good” chance Warner will come back as the same player he was before his injury. He doesn’t expect that his return will be in mid-January, about three months removed from surgery, but he’s not ruling it out.
“It’s kind of hard to predict unless they give a report on what they actually end up finding in surgery,” Jung said. “But, in general, you would expect bone to take six to eight weeks to heal, and ligaments probably around the same amount of time. And that just would get him to the point where he’s able to resume light training and progressing back.”
49ers pass the ‘Mike’ to Tatum Bethune, who will do his best Fred Warner impression (paywall)
“The 49ers mostly play a 4-2-5 defense, meaning they typically field two linebackers, a middle Mike and a weak-side Will, occasionally joined by a strong-side Sam linebacker on the tight end side. The Mike wears the green dot with a radio transmission in his helmet. The coordinator delivers the call. The Mike relays it to the 10 other players on defense. And the...
