Dre Greenlaw has slipped and badly hurt himself running onto the field, officially leaving him very doubtful to return to the Super Bowl in what has been a horrible turn of events for the 49ers.
Sadly, this is not a joke.
Linebacker Dre Greenlaw, one of the best performers in the 49ers playoff run, has suffered a terrible non-contact injury to his Achilles and is very doubtful to return to the Super Bowl.
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This means Oren Burks will move into the starters role next to linebacker Fred Warner, as the 49ers look to defend a 3-0 lead in the second quarter at the time of writing. This has been a defensive Super Bowl so far, compunding the terrible circumstances.
Dre Greenlaw appeared to injure himself jogging back onto the field pic.twitter.com/p3nwmTUsfO
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 12, 2024
Non-contact injuries are the worst things to happen to a player. Unfortunately given the nature of the injury and the fact he can't put weight on it, the prognosis is not good for Greenlaw who could be out for the long term:
Dre Greenlaw #FTTB #SuperBowl
— Jesse Morse, MD (@DrJesseMorse) February 12, 2024
Unfortunately this is likely to be a torn Achilles tendon.
It happened when he was pushing off.
Shame. pic.twitter.com/XJb3GeS0sv
This could be a terrible result for Greenlaw longterm as the Achilles is a very difficult injury to come back from. With any luck the prognosis won't be the worst case possible, but the team will probably be looking to 2024 without him for at least part of the season.
This will be a question for later however. For now the 49ers are still trying to win the Super Bowl and win a sixth Lombardi trophy, and a Super Bowl ring would go some way to alleviating the pain.