Well, that’s a bit of a change in timeline. Following Sunday’s 28-21 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in which Jimmy Garoppolo sustained a calf injury and was relieved by Trey Lance at halftime, Garoppolo sounded pretty pessimistic.
He said he sustained the injury on the first series and felt it tighten up on him throughout the rest of the game, and said he hoped it would only be an injury he dealt with for a “couple weeks.” He also said he was fed up with being injured.
On Monday, though, Kyle Shanahan said Garoppolo could return by this Sunday.
“It does mean he has a chance [to play],” Shanahan said. “It wasn’t as bad as what we thought it might have been. Seen him today, he’s in a lot of pain still sore. Hopefully by the time he comes in Wednesday, if it’s getting better, then he’ll have a good chance, look at it as a bruise. If it hasn’t improved at all by Wednesday, probably be a little bit longer.”
There was hugely positive news for Trent Williams, and some less than encouraging news for Robbie Gould.
First, the bad. Gould sustained a strained groin and could miss three-to-five weeks. If he’s placed on injured reserve, which is a possibility, he would have to miss at least three games — not three weeks — which means it would be a four-week stint with the 49ers’ bye coming up in Week 6.
But the update for Williams was a massive sigh of relief. He departed the game on a cart in the fourth quarter holding his right arm with what was initially called an elbow injury, but later corrected to a shoulder injury. He appeared emotional, putting his hand on his face under his lifted helmet as he departed the field, but is now viewed as day-to-day.
“That was some of probably the best news we got considering what we were worried about initially,” Shanahan said. “There is some fluid in there and stuff, so there are some issues with it, but that’s stuff that hopefully he can recover here before Sunday.”
Shanahan said that the news for Garoppolo and Williams is both positive in that they’re not serious injuries.
“At least we know that it’s nothing too serious, where it will be long term, which was a possibility,” Shanahan said. “I think Trent we got a little bit better news than Jimmy, but Jimmy we just gotta see how it reacts here in the next two days, but both of them were definitely, better news today than the feeling we had last night.”
The other bit of positive news was that George Kittle, who hyperextended his knee but played on, has the same injury status as last week.
Kittle (calf), Javon Kinlaw (knee) and Samson Ebukam (hamstring soreness) are all viewed as day-to-day with injuries which will be managed throughout the week. That indicates they’ll likely be limited or out of practice earlier in the week.