Claire Kittle shares daring 49ers message on George Kittle recovery

Mohammad Asif Ansari

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Claire Kittle shares daring 49ers message on George Kittle recovery image

The San Francisco 49ers may have suffered a significant blow to their postseason run on Sunday, but they still managed to secure a 23-19 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. The star tight end George Kittle, was forced to leave the game due to a torn Achilles tendon, which he sustained in the second quarter just minutes before the halftime break.

Kittle faces a grueling recovery timeline of nine to 12 months. The 49ers' TE recently signed an extension, $76.4 million, through 2029, before suffering the season-ending injury.

"Football sucks sometimes," Kittle posted on Instagram.

Claire Kittle of the Kittle family shared on Instagram that she and George Kittle looked to Theodore Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena" following the injury, including her husband's tenacity.

“He is the man who is not only daring enough to strive for things most would be too diffident to attempt, but he always does it all with great enthusiasm,” Claire posted.  “No doubt he will take on this recovery with the same tenacity as he does with everything else, and he will back better than ever before. We love you,” she wrote.

MORE: 49ers Kyle Juszczyk keeps it real to make George Kittle smile

Loss of the 49ers’ “heart” George Kittle is felt deeply

While the loss of Kittle is felt deeply, teammates call him the emotional center of the franchise.

"It's hard to do, man. This team has carried the character of George Kittle throughout the entire year, and since I got traded here, he's the heart and soul of this team,” running back Christian McCaffrey said. “It's a tough loss man When he's not playing it means a lot But he's somebody that even going through something that he had to go through and us finding a way to finish he's the first guy in the locker room smiling bumping music happy for his teammates and when you lose a leader like that you never really lose him cuz his presence is still in this locker room his energy is still here."

According to offensive tackle Trent Williams, the offensive players decided that they would play for him only if they shifted their mindset to honor their fallen captain.

"Instead of guys feeling sorry for us and feeling sorry for him, we decided we were going to play for him and try to pull it out for him,” Williams said. “When Fred [Warner] went down in Tampa, I don't think we responded well during the game. Well, after the gam,e we obviously came together, maybe we learned from that and handled this situation better."

Along with Jake Tonges, the 49ers also announced they were utilizing Luke Farrell as their backup tight end after Kittle's injury in the second quarter.

The 49ers' quest to advance will commence on Saturday. They will face the Seattle Seahawks in the divisional round.

As the offseason hits, with the organization looking to bolster the position through free agents such as David Njoku or Dallas Goedert, the 49ers might have a market.

The person to give the final message was George Kittle, who told his teammates to stay positive.

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Staff Writer