Patrick Mahomes Shares Health Update After ACL Surgery, Reveals How He’s Overcoming ‘Mental Hurdles’

Patrick Mahomes is sharing some insight into his recovery after undergoing ACL surgery last month.

During the December 14 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, 30, tore his ACL and LCL. On Thursday, January 15, Mahomes spoke to reporters via video call and said that rehab — which he’s doing in Kansas City — “is going great so far,” and he is “hitting all the checkpoints” his doctor wants him to.

“The doctor kind of gives you goals to get to. I just try to maximize those, and they hold me back, because I always want to go a little bit further,” he explained. “I want to be ready for Week 1. The doctors said that I could be.”

“I can’t predict what’s gonna happen throughout the process, but that’s my goal. I’ll try to prepare myself to be ready to play in that Week 1 and have no restrictions,” he continued of the 2026-2027 season. “You want to be out there healthy and give us the best chance to win.”

The NFL player noted he was hoping “to do some some stuff in OTAs [organized team activities]” before training camp in the summer.

Later in the interview, a reporter asked Mahomes about the “mental toll” his injury has taken on him.

“It definitely weighs on your mental a little bit,” he confessed. “But for me, just having that goal in mind of trying to get better every day and knowing what I’m striving to do — which is to be ready as quickly as possible and have a chance to play in that opening day game, no matter where it is, so that I’m there with my teammates and can be at training camp and doing what I need to do — I think that’s kind of pushed me through some of those mental hurdles.”

The athlete also credited his wife, Brittany, and their three kids — Sterling, 4, Bronze, 3, and Golden, 1 — for helping him get through this rough period.

“That, as well as having a great wife that’s able to keep me involved with the kids,” he added. “And the kids understand that dad can’t necessarily be the dad that I usually am, throwing them around the couches and stuff like that, but I’m there. That’s been good for my mental [health] just being around the kids and being around the family and having a lot of great people around me.”