© Kirthmon F. Dozier | 2021 Sep 12
Another day, another injury issue for the 49ers.
Even when games aren’t being played, San Francisco can’t seem to kick the injury bug. The latest instance came via yesterday’s news that starting linebacker Dre Greenlaw would need surgery on his oblique muscle.
It’s a surgery that sometimes can knock a player out for a significant amount of time, but Kyle Shanahan provided a positive update on KNBR Friday that they expect Greenlaw back relatively soon.
“I think it’s his oblique is what you call it,” Shanahan said. “That’s been bothering him for a little bit. That’s one of those things that sometimes gets better the more you rest it. That’s why we’ve been careful with him in practice and everything. But as you do that, as we’ve been doing for a few weeks, it’s still getting worse, that’s how you know it’s not going to heal up. We finally had to make that decision yesterday, which was a tough decision because of how good of a player Dre is for us, but we could just tell it wasn’t going to heal. With it being this early in the year, it’s not one we want to hesitate on. Hopefully this surgery will go well, and he’ll be back sooner than later.
“I think we’re estimating four to six weeks,” Shanahan said. “And knowing Greenlaw, and knowing the guy, knowing his personality and how much — I mean, he’s the guy who doesn’t want to do this. He doesn’t want to miss football. He’s always trying to play through everything. So, a guy like that tends [to be] on the [lower estimate], which is four weeks. But I’ve also seen it happen, and things go bad and not heal the right way where I’ve seen guys go 12 weeks.
“We’re expecting Dre in four to six weeks, and if there isn’t anything that goes bad, I’d be pretty confident in that happening.”
Shanahan provided another piece of somewhat positive news when talking about second-year defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw. The 49ers were gashed on inside runs vs. the Lions, in part because of Kinlaw’s absence with a knee injury. Shanahan said Friday that Kinlaw appears to be on track to make his season debut vs. the Eagles.
“He’s going out there and he’s going to have a full practice. He had it yesterday and the good news was we’ve been giving him Wednesdays off because we’re trying to calm it down and not swell up. He made it through practice yesterday doing a lot of stuff and felt great today. Hopefully that continues. If he can get today in and feel good on Saturday, then I expect him to feel good on Sunday and be ready to help us.”
Listen to the full interview below.