Kittle reveals he played majority of 2023 season with injury

SANTA CLARA — On Wednesday, for the first time since undergoing successful core muscle surgery this offseason, George Kittle spoke to the media. The 49ers tight end shared that the injury occurred at some point in the middle of the 2023 NFL season, which made playing a challenge. "Quite a while," Kittle said when explaining when the injury occurred. "I'd say like Week 9-10. We took some MRIs of it and some stuff didn't show up, so we weren't entirely sure what we were dealing with until I got the surgery. That was a tough one. We tried to it figure out, but things weren't popping up on the scans, so just something we were playing through for probably like 10 weeks. "Fun stuff." Kittle still managed to record his third career 1,000-yard receiving season, but in the playoffs only caught eight of his 13 targets for 112 yards and one touchdown. including two receptions for four yards in Super Bowl LVIII. "[The training staff] tried doing everything they could to help keep me on the field as much as possible and not miss any practices and stuff like that," Kittle said. "They did a great job of that and it wasn't the most fun, but still could play at a high level." Kittle's defensive...