Getty Kyle Shanahan, 49ers coach, updated Christian McCaffrey's injury situation on Monday.
Well, two out of three ain’t bad. That’s the injury situation for the 49ers, who had three of their biggest stars injured in the grinding loss to Cleveland on Sunday. Coach Kyle Shanahan expressed optimism on the shoulder injury to Deebo Samuel and the ankle injury to tackle Trent Williams, but the update on Christian McCaffrey’s oblique/rib injury leaves him in question for Week 7 on Monday night against the Vikings.
The 49ers are still awaiting the full slate of results on McCaffrey. While Shanahan projected positivity, it is not going to be easy for McCaffrey to play in Week 7 given the location of his injury. The only hope is that the injury as not as severe as feared—which seems unlikely because it was severe enough to make McCaffrey leave the game late in the third quarter.
“It’s obviously a tougher position just because you get hit a lot more, but we’ve just got to see how it reacts,” Shanahan said on Monday. “We got to see exactly what’s wrong with it, too, because we haven’t got that back yet. So we say oblique/rib. Hopefully, it’s not both, but we got to wait to see for sure.”
49ers Christian McCaffrey Injury Likely to Go Into Week 7
Dr. Nirav Pandya, an orthopedic surgeon who analyzes injuries for KNBR in San Francisco, wrote on Twitter the there are several issues the 49ers still have to determine when figuring out how to proceed with McCaffrey.
Assuming the 49ers are conducting an MRI on McCaffrey, he said, the procedure will help, “to determine which obliques are injured (internal vs external), degree of tearing, and can also see subtle rib fractures that may not be seen on regular x-rays. #49ers.”
As for recuperation time, several publications that have put out NFL injury guides in recent years note that oblique injuries will take a few weeks to heal, and that without proper rest, the injury can linger or come back worse. That’s why the Christian McCaffrey injury is likely to cost him the 49ers’ Week 7 game.
Scientific Inquirer notes that, “the affected area should be allowed to rest and heal completely. Normally, the recuperation period lasts for a few weeks.”
USA Today wrote in 2015 that, “Oblique strains are usually treated with rest and could take a few weeks to heal, or could become a lingering issue otherwise.”
Still, NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco wrote on Twitter that it’s possible McCaffrey will play.
Samuel and Williams Uncertain for Week 7, Too
The bright-side take here is that Williams and Samuel should not be out long, if at all. Shanahan indicated that Samuel will remain day-to-day to open this week.
“We got to see how it recovers this week, and it’s just how his body is going to handle it,” Shanahan said. “You never know how those react. So we’ll wait and see.”
And the good news on Williams was that there was a fear he had suffered a high ankle sprain, which affects the ligaments and requires a more delicate recovery than a conventional sprain.
The injury looked bad when it happened, because of the way Williams’ ankle got rolled. Shanahan said he was not expecting Williams to remain in the game, but he gutted out an effort against Cleveland because he wanted to face pass-rushing ace Myles Garrett.
#49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan gives injury updates on RB Christian McCaffrey (oblique/ribs) and WR Deebo Samuel (shoulder):
CMC is currently having an MRI.
Deebo will be day-to-day.
Trent Williams (ankle) does not have a high-ankle sprain.
“I wasn’t expecting him (to play) because of how bad the injury looked,” Shanahan said. “The trainers thought that it wasn’t as serious as it looked. Trent was adamant to get back out there, and then we keep our eyes on him all game, which (offensive line coach) Chris Foerster does a real good job of.”