The season began with the 49ers playing a game over the availability of running back Christian McCaffrey. Currently, he is inching towards his debut in 2024, but the fight continues.
Asked by reporters when a decision will be made on whether McCaffrey will play in Tampa Bay on Sunday, coach Kyle Shanahan said: kick off. “
In fact, unless he is active and plays, it will be 90 minutes until kickoff.
Asked what he needs to see before knowing whether McCaffrey will play, Shanahan had more to say.
“He’s just Christian McCaffrey, unharmed,” Shanahan said. “But as long as everything goes well, the rehab goes well. That is, unless he gets sore or has a setback in practice every day. Usually if it happens in practice, it’s even worse in games. So hopefully he can do well three days in a row and not have that happen.”
If McCaffrey plays, his workload will be determined in the future.
“It certainly could be (a normal workload), but it could also be that it’s not,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan was also asked if the 2024 injury was related to McCaffrey’s workload through 20 games in 2023.
“I can’t believe that,” Shanahan said. “I don’t think he believes that. I think a lot of things happen to the body. I think they happen in the offseason, but I don’t think it’s really related to numbers. If he’s healthy and energetic, that’s usually good, but we need to see where his conditioning is. We’ll have to see how things are going. I know he’s as conditioned as he can be, but what’s his football conditioning and all that. But usually I’m looking at the next year. I don’t worry about the numbers one year because it affects injuries.”
Regardless of what happened, McCaffrey will no longer be able to play in any of the team’s eight games to date in 2024. Whether he can play is another question. Whether he can play well enough to turn around a season that could still go either way.
