The San Francisco 49ers maintained their unbeaten record last weekend when they faced their NFC West rivals, the Seattle Seahawks, and they did so with George Kittle feeling under the weather.

Kittle has returned from his season-ending injury last year and he is playing to a good standard having already secured four touchdowns this season. Sunday’s game in the Pacific Northwest was not his finest display, though.

The 33-year-old tight end was only able to rack up 24 receiving yards from five receptions against the Seahawks. However, he came away from the game with an excuse as he shared the details of his illness issues heading into the game.

Given the severity of Kittle’s illness leading up to the game, it goes to show how resilient the tight end truly is to have actually suited up at Lumen Field and played in the game.

What George Kittle said about his San Francisco 49ers illness vs Seahawks

The stats alone show just how unwell Kittle must have been feeling as he tallied so few yards on the day. However, his presence alone would have been a major boost for Kyle Shanahan’s team as they faced their bitter rivals.

“[I felt] Really terrible, like a shell of myself. Horrible. Not a lot of juice, but when you have enough caffeine in you, you can definitely play football,” Kittle told the media on Friday.

“I don’t know [what it was]. I was sick for like a while, and I feel like I just got over it today. It’s been a grind, but we’re past it. Thank goodness we played on Monday night, not Thursday night, so I had an extra day to recover.”

Incredibly, Kittle also said that he had lost around 10lbs as a result of illness in the lead up to the game last weekend. However, the star tight end claims he has almost recovered the weight loss in the days since.

“We’re close to it, so enough. Yeah, that was a grinder, but like I said, we made it through it. Shout out to the trainers: they gave me all the things I needed to keep on a football field.”

Not only would missing out on the NFC West rivalry have been a big blow for Kittle but also not being able to play in this 49ers team would have been painful for him. The Niners are rolling this season and even some sloppy offensive play against Seattle was not able to end their unbeaten run.

Kittle has now had an extra day to recover from his illness as the Niners do not play until Monday night against the Washington Commanders.