© Stan Szeto | 2019 Nov 24
George Kittle looked like his old self in his return to the field on Sunday, catching six passes for 129 yards and a thrilling 61-yard touchdown catch and run to put the game out of reach for the Packers.
We’ll say it again: HE’S BACK pic.twitter.com/yPHjVd4ZxG
— KNBR (@KNBR) November 25, 2019
It’s then somewhat shocking to discover that Kittle is doing all of this with a broken ankle sustained at Arizona three weeks ago. Kyle Shanahan explained the nature of the issue after the game, specifying that the tight end can’t make the injury any worse, but that playing through it is extremely painful.
“It’s a bone chip,” Shanahan said. “It’s stable but he’s got to play thorough some pain.
“It’s like a piece of tree bark came off. When you do that it’s still stable, you can’t break it worse and you’re able to go with it, but it’s extremely painful.”
The ankle issue isn’t even why Kittle missed the last two weeks. That had to do with a knee injury he also sustained in the Cardinals game.
“Why we had to rest him was for his knee to get healthy, which took a couple weeks.
“But the stuff he had in his knee, it was a popped capsule. That took a couple more weeks to heal up. Once that was healed, it was pain tolerance with the ankle.”
Kittle downplayed the difficulty of playing through the pain.
“It’s football,” Kittle said postgame. “It’s fine. It’s a mindset, you just go out and play football. That’s all it is.
“I think they both (the ankle and knee) looked pretty good tonight.”