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As 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan put it on Friday on the Murph and Mac show, the 49ers are “a little bit banged up.” That’s an obvious way to characterize the team’s injury situation which has Ahkello Witherspoon, Joe Staley, Mike McGlinchey and Kyle Juszczyk all injured, but on the active roster, plus Jason Verrett, Trent Taylor, Jalen Hurd and Kentavius Street on injured reserve. Two of those IR players can return; for a full review of their potential return dates, click here.
That’s without mentioning the more pressing injury concerns of George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, D.J. Jones and Raheem Mostert. The one player Shanahan did not provide an update on is Mostert, who has a knee injury that’s either a strain or sprain—he wasn’t too sure when describing it on Wednesday, but will speak later on Friday.
As for Kittle, Samuel and Jones, only one of those guys has an optimistic injury outlook, and it’s the most crucial of the three. Shanahan said he expects Kittle to play Sunday, assuming all goes well in practice Friday.
“Kittle has been banged up. He got to go a little bit more yesterday,” Shanahan said. “Last week, he had a pretty bad setback on Friday which made us nervous about him on Sunday. He was able to get through the game. Had to pull him out there at the end. He’s healing up, but he’s almost in the same situation where he was last week. Should be good to go as long as there’s no setbacks today, but something you have to watch throughout the game.”
Neither of Samuel or Jones appear likely to play at this point, which, in all likelihood, means that wide receiver Jordan Matthews, who has yet to be active for a game, and defensive tackle Jullian Taylor, who hasn’t been active since Week 2, will both be active against the Washington Redskins on Sunday.
“Deebo probably has an outside chance to play,” Shanahan said. “The guy we’re hoping to get, but probably an outside chance, very similar to Deebo is D.J. Jones.”
To listen to Shanahan’s full interview, in which he clarifies his comments about the Redskins, click below.