What positive news did 49ers receive about Christian McCaffrey’s Achilles tendinitis?
As they prepare for their Week 5 game against the Cardinals, the 49ers are still without their star running back but there is good news about his situation.
At 2-2, the San Francisco 49ers enter Sunday’s game knowing that a win would go a long way to putting the team back on track. Further to that, they’ve got to be thinking that against the 1-3 Cardinals, this is the perfect opportunity to do so.
Niners receive positive update about Christian McCaffrey
So far, the 2024 NFL season has been one to forget for San Francisco 49ers star running back Christian McCaffrey. Indeed, when considering the reigning Offensive Player of the Year has not featured in any of his team’s games for the season so far, one has to imagine that the 28-year-old has seen better days.
If you’ve caught our previous reports, then you’re aware that McCaffrey is suffering from bilateral Achilles tendinitis, or in other words, he’s got problems with both of his Achilles tendons. To that end, he was ruled out not long before the team’s Week 1 game and was then placed on injured reserve right after that.
Now, since that time, we’ve seen McCaffrey travel to Germany to see a specialist, after which ‘early November’ was stated as the expected timeline for his return. There were also comments from 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan alluding to the idea that the team would be “ramping up” McCaffrey’s rehabilitation program. Yet, none of those updates were able to give any clear indication as to whether he was improving, until now.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Saturday night, McCaffrey’s Achilles injury did not have any setbacks after participating in on-field work during the team’s practice this week. Further to that, Schefter also suggested that McCaffrey could in fact return as early as October 20th, when the team is set to face the reigning Super Bowl champions, Kansas City Chiefs. It’s important to note that Schefter also stressed that even if McCaffrey is ready to go, expect to see the Niners treading extremely carefully with him. Of course, mention has got to be made of Jordan Mason who has filled the void left by McCaffrey, notching a league-leading 91 attempts on an average of 111.8 yards per game along with 3 touchdowns on the season so far.