Patrick Willis completes surgery, posts photo to Instagram

The San Francisco 49ers will be without the services of linebacker Patrick Willis this season, but he has already begun his march back. Willis had surgery this week, and is back home recuperating, as we can see in this picture he posted to Instagram.

There is no specific word on his return, but for comparison's sake, Quinton Dial had surgery in January 2013, and the team activated him off the NFI list on October 19. I spoke with socalisteph, and she described a potential timeline as follows. It is important to note that not every athlete is the same, so this is more just a general look at it:

1. He will not or should not bear weight for 4-6 weeks. That is followed by physical therapy.
2. Conditioning work begins 10-12 weeks out.
3. Best result is a return to football action in 4-5 months, a poor result would be taking upwards of a year

Steph believes this likely results in him spending OTAs rehabbing, and then ideally would be ready to go for the start of training camp. We will be keeping close track of this between now and next July, but that is a starting point.

Surgery went well thank u all for the support and heartfelt wishes. Determined to get back on that field and be better than ever. Road back starts now! #alwaysbelieve

A photo posted by Patrick Willis (@patricklwillis) on Nov 11, 2014 at 1:39pm PST