49ers LB opens up about 'devastating' Super Bowl injury

Dre Greenlaw opened up about his devastating torn Achilles, which he suffered during Super Bowl LVIII, in an appearance on the "49ers Talk" podcast with NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco on Thursday.

According to Maiocco, the interview was the San Francisco 49ers linebacker's first since his injury and the team's 25-22 overtime loss against the Kansas City Chiefs. 

Greenlaw tore his left Achilles as he prepared to take the field in the second quarter during a change of possession.

"Sometimes you get a little flashback and shed a couple of tears thinking about it,” Greenlaw said.

The 26-year-old was one of San Francisco's best defensive players last season in a group full of high-profile names, finishing second in combined (120), solo (75) and assisted tackles (45) behind only All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner. Greenlaw added five tackles for loss, four quarterback hits, four passes defensed and 1.5 sacks despite missing two games.

He was even better in the playoffs, especially during the Niners' divisional-round win against the Green Bay Packers. He was on the injury report with a right Achilles issue leading up to the contest, but Greenlaw finished the victory with game-highs in tackles (eight) and passes defensed (two) while picking off Packers quarterback Jordan Love twice.

"It’s definitely an emotional thing because you know how hard you worked for that moment, how hard your team worked to get in that moment,” Greenlaw said. “You’re that close to it and you can’t go out there and compete. So it just kind of feels like you left everybody hanging."

Greenlaw added that the situation is "one of the things that you just kind of think about and you just try not to cry."

Per Maiocco, in the immediate aftermath of the injury, Greenlaw "for some reason" initially thought it was his previously bothersome right Achilles.

"I thought, ‘Oh, no, somebody stepped on my right Achilles,’ but then I’m reaching for my left one. It ended up being my left Achilles. It was just a devastating, horrible feeling," he said. "I took that step and that's when I had no power on my leg, no nothing. ... It was kind of dead."