SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Already playing through a torn ligament in his right thumb, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered another injury in Sunday’s victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
This time, Garoppolo is dealing with what coach Kyle Shanahan called Monday a “slightly” sprained right (throwing) shoulder. According to Shanahan, the injury occurred in the second quarter.
Garoppolo joins linebacker Fred Warner (sprained right ankle) and defensive end Nick Bosa (concussion) on the list of key Niners nursing injuries to watch this week as the team prepares for Saturday night’s NFC divisional-round game against the Green Bay Packers.
The good news, according to Shanahan, is that Warner and Garoppolo should be ready to go against Green Bay. In fact, Shanahan believes Garoppolo will be able to practice when the team resumes those sessions on Tuesday.
“He should be fine for practice,” Shanahan said. “He had to play through some pain and stuff but he ended up checking out all right. Just a slight shoulder sprain and he should be good for (Tuesday’s) practice.”
Warner suffered his ankle sprain in the fourth quarter and was writhing in pain and grabbing at the ankle, which put a scare into the Niners and their fans. Further testing on Monday, however, revealed it was a low ankle sprain, which means he should also be OK this week, though it’s unclear if he will resume practice right away.
“We’ll evaluate and see as the week goes,” Shanahan said. “The initial scare was that it could have been high, so we got good news on that. He had something similar to this earlier in the year but we’ll evaluate him on Wednesday, which I think is Tuesday this week.”
Earlier on Monday, Warner had indicated that his injury wasn’t as serious as first feared, tweeting: “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.”
Bosa’s status is more uncertain because he must clear the necessary steps of the concussion protocol to be cleared to play. Bosa suffered his concussion just before halftime of San Francisco’s 23-17 win against Dallas.
Shanahan said he did not get a chance to speak to Bosa on Sunday night or Monday morning but got positive reports from those who did.
“We’re being pretty optimistic with it,” Shanahan said. “I’ve seen that a few times and he seem like he’s in a pretty good spot right now but I’m not going to be the one who judges that.”
In addition to Garoppolo, Bosa and Warner, Niners defensive end Jordan Willis suffered a high ankle sprain against the Cowboys, which puts his status in doubt against the Packers.
With a short week and less time for their injured players to heal, Shanahan said the Niners will have a lighter schedule this week. That will start with a late start time on Tuesday, followed by less strenuous practices on Wednesday and Thursday before traveling to Green Bay.
“I think the biggest thing about this week is going to be about recovery,” Shanahan said. “So, the more sleep we can do, we’ll slow most of the stuff down. I doubt we get many full speed reps in this week … (We’ll) make it pretty easy on the guys this week.”
