Mike McGlinchey's 2021 campaign ended in Week 9 against the Arizona Cardinals. The right tackle didn't think he would miss much time, not realizing at the time the severity of the injury he had just suffered. That changed when doctors shared the diagnosis with him.
Initially, the injury was reported to be a quad tear. However, that wasn't the case. McGlinchey was dealing with discomfort since the end of training camp, continuing into the regular season. In addition, he had been dealing with some tendinitis for years.
"It gave out in the start of the second quarter, maybe like the 18th to 20th play against Arizona," McGlinchey told Brad Graham of TheSFNiners. "I sat down on a bull rush, and then I just kind of felt this disperse of pain in my leg. I thought it was just another flare-up of the same issue I was having. I thought I was going to be able to rehab it and be fine."
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The next day, McGlinchey couldn't bend his leg. That's when he realized that the injury might be more severe than he initially assumed. Later, the doctor told the offensive lineman that his season was over.
"That's the first time I had ever dealt with that before," McGlinchey shared. "I missed three-ish games in '19, but that's like a drop in the bucket for that season because we played about 20 of them. It was a tough moment. I had never dealt with that before. I had never dealt with not being able to participate with my team for a number of weeks, especially when we went on the run that we did after that."
That started a rigorous rehabilitation for the 27-year-old player, who calls the whole ordeal a "growing experience."
"It wasn't my quad muscle," McGlinchey clarified. "It was the tendon that connects the quad to the knee cap. So thankfully, [it] was still like five percent attached, so the muscle didn't recoil up my leg because that would have made rehab quite a bit harder."
49ers players report to training camp next week, and McGlinchey believes he will be ready to compete.
"It's been a long road, and a lot of patience and a lot of tough, dark times," McGlinchey said, "and a lot of stress, but here I am just about eight, nine months later, and I'm ready to go for training camp. So, I'm excited. I feel like I'm back. I feel stronger than I ever have. I think I've been dealing with that issue for a number of years now, and looking at the silver lining, I've got a newly reconstructed knee, and there isn't that tendinitis in there as much."