San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw has admitted that he will still ‘shed a couple of tears’ over the freak Achilles injury he suffered during his side’s Super Bowl LVIII defeat in February.
The 49ers were taking on the Kansas City Chiefs in February’s title game when Greenlaw, who had played just 12 snaps, went down with a non-contact injury when he was running onto the field.
The 26-year-old suffered a torn left Achilles and is currently three months into a nine-month rehabilitation period after he underwent surgery in the week following the Super Bowl.
The Niners would go on to lose to the Chiefs 25-22 in overtime to suffer their second defeat to Patrick Mahomes and company in four years as the franchise’s wait for a sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy stretched into a 30th year.
"Sometimes you get a little flashback and shed a couple of tears thinking about it," Greenlaw said on NBC Sports Bay Area as he spoke about the injury for the first time since the Super Bowl.
"It's definitely an emotional thing because you know how hard you worked for that moment, how hard your team worked to get in that moment.
"You're that close to it and you can't go out there and compete. So it just kind of feels like you left everybody hanging.
"So it's one of the things that you just kind of think about and you just try not to cry."
Greenlaw was not yet ready to put a return date on the record, but hopes to make an impact as the 49ers again look to well-placed to content for a place for the Super Bowl again.
"When I feel like I can go out there and I really contribute and bring everything I got, I'm just going to do that every game," he added. "I don't know if it's going to be two, three, five, six, eight or 10 (games). But when I do get the opportunity, I'm just going to play like it's the Super Bowl every game."
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