{"id":713991,"date":"2026-06-04T04:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713991\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T04:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:13:08","slug":"george-kittle-continues-push-for-week-1-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713991\/","title":{"rendered":"George Kittle continues push for Week 1 return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>George Kittle\u2019s goal from the moment he tore his Achilles was to get back for the season opener. He said Wednesday that he remains on track to get back for Week 1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy Achilles is doing great, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.49erswebzone.com\/articles\/201023-george-kittle-shares-encouraging-recovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">no setbacks<\/a> in my recovery,\u201d Kittle said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. \u201cChecking all the boxes, doing everything I\u2019m supposed to do. My surgeon\u2019s super happy. My physical therapist in L.A., who works with him, is super happy. Niners are happy. I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kittle tore his right Achilles during a Jan. 11 playoff game against the Eagles. That gave him only eight months for surgery and rehab, prompting an initial fear that Kittle would miss some of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed the surgery on Kittle\u2019s Achilles in Los Angeles the week of the injury, and he told Kittle immediately afterward that Kittle had \u201ca chance\u201d to make it back for Week 1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, it definitely ignites something and makes you push for it,\u201d Kittle said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re on track; we\u2019re ahead of schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The long round trip to and from Melbourne, Australia, for the first game complicates Kittle\u2019s timeline, but he calls it \u201cjust another challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kittle made a seventh career Pro Bowl last season despite playing only 11 regular-season games due to hamstring and ankle injuries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Kittle\u2019s goal from the moment he tore his Achilles was to get back for the season opener.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-713991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}