After devastating blows to two key players on the 49ers defense, San Francisco received some encouraging news following their Wild Card victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
On Monday, the team returned to the SAP Performance Facility to re-assess several players, including Nick Bosa and Fred Warner.
In the second quarter, Bosa took a teammate's knee to the helmet that removed him from the remainder of the game and placed the edge rusher in the concussion protocol. Per head coach Kyle Shanahan, the team is "pretty optimistic" he'll be cleared from the protocol in advance of the 49ers short turnaround to Green Bay for Saturday's Divisional Round matchup.
"I didn't personally get a chance to talk to him," Shanahan said. "I talked to a number of guys who did and our trainers. We're pretty optimistic with it. I've seen that a few times. And he seems like he's in a pretty good spot right now but not going to be the one to judge that."
It's a similar situation for Warner who suffered an ankle injury in the fourth quarter. The linebacker suffered the non-contact injury and went down in obvious pain, which it was feared to game-threatening. Warner did not return to the field, however, the team revealed on Monday the linebacker suffered a low-grade sprain with the opportunity to play in Saturday's Divisional matchup.
"We'll evaluate him and see as the week goes," Shanahan said. "The initial scare was it could have been (a high-ankle sprain). So, we got good news on that. He had something similar to this earlier in the year, but we'll evaluate him here on (Tuesday)."
The linebacker also took to Twitter on Monday to offer fans some relief and give optimism in his potential return to the field.
"Sorry for the scare yesterday everyone, I appreciate everyone showing love and support for me and the fellas. We'll be good to go. Huge win, onto the next," the tweet said.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a shoulder sprain on his throwing arm during the second quarter of Sunday's contest. Per Shanahan, the quarterback played through the pain in the win and he didn't suggest the injury will have any bearing on his availability leading up to Saturday's game.
"He should be fine for practice," Shanahan said. "He ended up checking out alright. Just a slight shoulder sprain. He should be good for Wednesday's practice."
Garoppolo has already been playing through a torn ligament and sprain in his right thumb. However, the quarterback alluded to checking out of Sunday's game OK.
Defensive lineman Jordan Willis went down in the second quarter with an ankle injury and did not return. The team will continue to re-assess him.
Marcell Harris and Talanoa Hufanga, who were both inactive for Sunday's game, have a chance to practice this week. Harris has been dealing with Achilles tendinitis the past several weeks and Hufanga has been working through a knee injury suffered in Week 15. Per the head coach, both players will be "day-to-day" as the week goes.
Given the shortened week ahead of Saturday's Divisional Round, the 49ers plan to move their week up a day. Instead of a player off day on Tuesday, the team will likely host a slower speed practice in preparation for Green Bay.
Per Shanahan, the team's focus heading into the week is rest and recovery, especially coming off of back-to-back physical matchups.
"Everything's moved up one day," Shanahan said. "We're going to start a little bit later (on Tuesday). Just kind of give us the morning so we don't have to finish all the gameplan and everything tonight. We'll be able to look over some stuff in the morning and also give the players just a little bit more time to sleep in. I think the biggest thing of this week is going to be about recovery. So, the more sleep we can do – and we'll slow most of the stuff down. I doubt we get many full speed reps in this week. Main thing, we had two real physical games and a short week here, especially traveling. We're going to make it pretty easy on the guys this week."
