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San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw is officially on the road to recovery after his devastating injury in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday.
Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Greenlaw underwent successful surgery on Thursday to repair a torn Achilles suffered while running onto the field from the sideline. He is expecting to make a full recovery.
Greenlaw’s injury occurred in the second quarter of Sunday’s Big Game when he was taking the field with San Francisco’s defense following a punt return:
Bleacher Report @BleacherReport
Dre Greenlaw went down with an apparent injury while running back onto the field
Hope he’s ok 🙏
The NFL released the Super Bowl edition of Inside the NFL this week featuring reactions from 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs players following Greenlaw’s injury:
NFL @NFL
Players on both sides recognized the impact of Dre Greenlaw’s injury đź’”
The devastation of Greenlaw’s injury was further compounded by San Francisco’s 25-22 overtime loss to Kansas City, its second Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs in the last five years.
49ers star linebacker Fred Warner told reporters earlier this week that he had spoken to Greenlaw since Sunday and he said his teammate was already eager to begin the recovery process.
“Obviously, he’s down, but he has a good mindset about it, and he’s just eager to get the surgery done so he can get right into rehab and get back to work,” Warner said. “I have no doubt in my mind he’ll come back better than he was. He’s made of the right stuff, and, yeah, he’ll be back.”
A 2019 fifth-round pick, Greenlaw has emerged as one of San Francisco’s top defensive players over the past couple of seasons. He ranked second on the team in 2023 with 120 total tackles while also adding four passes defended and 1.5 sacks.
The 49ers are certainly hoping that Greenlaw will be back on the field when they try to chase another trip to the Super Bowl next season.
