Ford reveals he had surgery on his knee a couple of weeks after the Super Bowl

San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Dee Ford met with the media Friday morning and revealed he had a “pretty extensive cleanup” of his knee a couple of weeks after the Super Bowl. Ford has been dealing with tendinitis in his knee throughout the season, which limited Ford to playing 22% of the snaps.

Ford said he feels great after Dr. James Andrews did the surgery in Pensacola, Florida. Ford has been rehabbing in his home in Alabama. Ford said he feels confident and can now explode off his knee. He continually praised the 49ers training staff for identifying the injury early on and helping him make the best decisions. Here is Ford speaking on playing through the injury:

“Thinking back on it, I can’t believe I played a whole season in it [his knee.] We knew what we had to do. It had to be surgical. I didn’t want to miss the season. We had too much going on. It’s in the bag now, though. I’m confident in that.”

Ford said there is no real timeline for his recovery. “Any time you’re dealing with a chronic issue, you’re always on the clock. If I’m able to play, I’m going to play. As of right now, I’m just getting as healthy as I can. With everything going on, it’s hard to measure what percentage I’m at. I know exactly what I felt like last year. Doing the things that I’m doing now, it’s like night and day. We’ll take it one day at a time and keep getting this thing as strong as I can possibly get it so we can sack some quarterbacks.”

Ford was asked about how frustrating it was to not be out there with his teammates:

Man, it was so tough. I was in a situation where we needed to beat Seattle, and I had actually re-pulled my hamstring working out. I really wanted to play in that game, even if I was a decoy. When the stakes are that big, and the stakes are that high, big-time players come out in those types of games. The fact that I was missing those opportunities it definitely hurt. We sat down as a training staff, which is phenomenal, we have a phenomenal training staff and strength and conditioning staff, and we were all on the same page with we have one shot to do this right because we were definitely going to be in the postseason. I had to forget how I felt and just move forward. It was tough, but that’s what we had to do so I could be available for the Vikings and the Super Bowl and all that. And I still would only get to a certain percentage from that time. It takes a legit two months to recover from a hamstring.

If Ford is fresh coming into the season, the 49ers defense has a chance to be even better than the historic unit they were last year. Ford seemed confident about his health moving forward.