Sunday’s win over the Vikings came at a substantial cost. Two of the 49ers’ best players, including the man George Kittle said is “everything” to the team’s offense, will be out for at least a week.
Kyle Shanahan said Monday that Deebo Samuel avoided a serious injury, but strained his groin and is expected to miss one-to-two weeks. Fred Warner, who has never missed a game in his NFL career, suffered a hamstring strain and is on roughly the same timeline.
There is no convenient time for injuries, but Warner’s comes at a particularly inconvenient one. Dre Greenlaw irritated his core muscle, which was the reason he’d been on injured reserve since Week 2, and is day to day.
Marcell Harris is in the concussion protocol. He returned to the game after Shanahan said he cleared the protocol on the sideline and after the game, but came in on Monday with concussion symptoms.
That leaves Azeez Al-Shaair, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles and practice squad linebacker Tyrell Adams as the most immediate linebacker options. Given that the team uses three safeties fairly often, you could see Talanoa Hufanga used in the box much more next weekend.
Running back Trey Sermon also suffered a “pretty bad” ankle sprain and is likely headed for injured reserve, while Kentavius Street had a wrist sprain and is day to day.
The word was mum on Dee Ford, who is entering the final week of his three-week injured reserve practice window. Shanahan said that the plan remains the same for Ford.
“We tried him out last week, hoped to ease him in a little bit,” Shanahan said. “Hoped he’d be able to go and he wasn’t able to, so probably the same plan this week and see if it goes better.”
