That leaves the aforementioned Christian McCaffrey’s status for next week’s regular season opener against the Seattle Seahawks very much up in the air. The San Francisco 49ers have him listed as questionable so far. This decision follows a week of muddled communications on McCaffrey’s health. As a consequence, fans and analysts alike are sounding the alarm.
On Monday and Wednesday, McCaffrey was at least physically present on the practice field, going through his typical stretching and pre-work warmup routine. He conducted these movements with the eagle eyes of Mike Sola, showing that the game was the most important thing to him in his preparation for it. To that end, on Wednesday, he had not appeared on the very first practice injury report of 2023. That’s a strong indicator he was otherwise quite healthy during that time.
On Thursday, the story changed overnight. Later in the week, McCaffrey was added to the injury report with a right calf concern. He was in uniform during the first few hours of Friday’s practice, making surprise appearances. This session was open to the media, and his appearance was significant and unusual. Unfortunately, he ended up not practicing at all that day, raising further speculation over whether or not he’d be able to go this Sunday.
McCaffrey looked good all offseason and in training camp and made it seem like he finally had no lingering health concerns but he’s been here before. It was hard on him last season. Due to catastrophic injuries he was only able to suit up in four games. He sat out the first eight games last season with tendinitis. Then, in Week 13, he hurt the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in a game against the Buffalo Bills. After that injury, he suffered from bilateral Achilles tendinitis and landed on injured reserve.
McCaffrey’s status has become very interesting. It’s a repeat of a turn of events last season when he headed into Week 1 as questionable while healing from a calf ailment. This has led the coaching staff to take a more cautious approach with his chronic problems. Understandably, they’re weighing every possible option and determining if he’s healthy enough to suit up against Seattle.
If that’s the case, and McCaffrey is in fact limited, Brian Robinson would most likely take his spot, so don’t overlook Brian Robinson. This has been something that Robinson has been preparing for. While fans and teammates alike are cautiously optimistic about McCaffrey’s chances of returning to action in time to help on Sunday, clock’s ticking.
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