SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco 49ers Pro Bowl tight end George Kittle said doctors characterized his ruptured Achilles tendon as a “best-case scenario," providing hope that he could return without missing significant time next season.
Kittle hurt his right Achilles tendon in a wild-card win over Philadelphia on Jan. 11 and had surgery last week in Los Angeles. Kittle said Dr. Neal ElAttrache told him he had a “clean tear” near his soleus muscle that is higher on the Achilles tendon.
“They didn’t have to drill into my heel,” Kittle said Monday. “Where the repair was, there’s more blood flow so it takes some time off the recovery time. So he’s very excited about everything. My recovery — when I’ll be running, when I’ll be ready to go play again — he’s very excited about it. So that puts me in a really good mood. It’s not as bad as other ones.”
Kittle didn't want to give a timeline for his potential return, saying, “I'll keep it a surprise.” But a return in eight to nine months could get Kittle back on the field near the beginning of the 2026 season.
Kittle said he knew immediately how serious the injury was, saying it "felt like someone put a shotgun up against my calf and pulled the trigger.”
He told the Eagles trainer who was first on the field to check on him that he needed a cart and was taken back to the locker room. Kittle was joined there by his family, as well as Niners owner Jed York, who procured a bottle of tequila for his star player.
“Getting his support was absolutely fantastic," Kittle said. "Just the fact that the team owner comes down to come give his condolences to you, and just like stays there for you, just really means what kind of place this is, and the people that are in this building. And it makes me really happy to be a Niner.”
Kittle is a two-time All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowler who is a key part of San Francisco’s offense as a passing threat and a blocker in the run game. He had 57 catches for 628 yards receiving and seven touchdowns this season.
The Niners struggled offensively in his absence last week, losing 41-6 to Seattle in the divisional round.
There were a few other injury updates on locker cleanout day.
Star linebacker Fred Warner said he was ready to return had the team advanced to the NFC title game, but now will slow down his rehabilitation work with significantly more time to heal.
“I think my rehab had gotten obviously super accelerated to try to make the NFC championship game,” Warner said. "Now, I just get to kind of slow things down and really just work on all the little things that I didn’t get to work on before all this happened. It’s just business as usual.”
Rookie defensive end Mykel Williams, who tore his ACL in Week 9, said his rehabilitation is going well and he hopes to be ready for the season opener.
Quarterback Brock Purdy said he won't need any special treatment for his turf toe injury that sidelined him for eight games during the season.
″The toe is good to go,” Purdy said. “Obviously, I’ll continue to strengthen it and give it some rest and whatnot. But it’s good.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
San Francisco 49ers' head coach Kyle Shanahan embraces George Kittle after Kittle was injured in second quarter of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell breaks up a pass intended for San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle is carted off the field after an injury during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
RAQQA, Syria (AP) — The Syrian military claimed Tuesday that guards from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had abandoned a camp in northeast Syria housing thousands of people linked to the Islamic State group, allowing the detainees to escape.
The al-Hol camp houses mainly women and children who are family members of IS members or accused of being otherwise affiliated with the group. Thousands of accused IS militants are separately housed in prisons in northeast Syria.
The SDF, meanwhile, said in a statement that “violent clashes are currently taking place between our forces and Damascus-affiliated factions in the vicinity of al-Hol camp.”
The Associated Press could not independently verify either statement. Representatives of the U.S. military did not respond to requests for comment.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
RAQQA, Syria (AP) — Syria's ministry of interior said Tuesday that 120 Islamic State members escaped from a prison in northeast Syria a day earlier, amid clashes between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which guards the prison.
Security forces recaptured 81 of the escapees, “while intensive security efforts continue to pursue the remaining fugitives and take the necessary legal measures against them,” the statement said.
The SDF and the government have traded blame over the escape at a prison in the town of Shaddadeh, amid the breakdown of a ceasefire deal between the two sides.
Also Tuesday, the SDF accused “Damascus-affiliated factions” of cutting off water supplies to the al-Aqtan prison near the city of Raqqa, which it called a “blatant violation of humanitarian standards.”
The SDF, the main U.S.-backed force that fought IS in Syria, controls more than a dozen prisons in the northeast where some 9,000 IS members have been held for years without trial. Many of the detained extremists are believed to have carried out atrocities in Syria and Iraq after IS declared a caliphate in June 2014 over large parts of Syria and Iraq.
IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries.
Under a deal announced Sunday, government forces were to take over control of the prisons from the SDF, but the transfer did not go smoothly.
On Monday, Syrian government forces and SDF fighters clashed around two prisons housing members of the Islamic State group in Syria’s northeast.
The clashes came as SDF chief commander Mazloum Abdi was said to be in Damascus to attempt to solidify a ceasefire deal reached Sunday that ended days of deadly fighting during which government forces captured wide areas of northeast Syria from the SDF.
Abdi issued no statement after the meeting and the SDF later issued a statement calling for “all of our youth” to “join the ranks of the resistance," appearing to signal that the deal had fallen apart.
Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa postponed a planned trip to Germany Tuesday amid the ongoing tensions in northeast Syria.
Since toppling Bashar Assad in December 2024, Syria’s new leaders have struggled to assert their full authority over the war-torn country. An agreement was reached in March that would merge the SDF with Damascus, but it didn’t gain traction.
Earlier this month, clashes broke out in the city of Aleppo, followed by the government offensive that seized control of Deir el-Zour and Raqqa provinces, critical areas under the SDF that include oil and gas fields, river dams along the Euphrates and border crossings.
Tribal fighters pose for photographs with local children after Syrian government troops, supported by tribal forces, took control of Raqqa from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last Sunday at Al-Naeem roundabout in central Raqqa, northeastern Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Tribal fighters pose for photographs taken by onlookers after Syrian government troops, supported by allied tribal forces, took control of Raqqa from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last Sunday at Al-Naeem roundabout in central Raqqa, northeastern Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Soldiers of the Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) deploy with armoured military vehicles to secure roads leading to Gweiran Prison which houses men accused of being an Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in Hassakeh, northeastern Syria, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
