San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo returned to the team facility on Tuesday. It was his first time back since undergoing knee surgery to repair his torn ACL on October 3.
Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area spotted Garoppolo on crutches on Thursday. Garoppolo is a pretty private individual and doesn't seem like the type of person who seeks out attention. Less so following his injury, which is understandable. He headed in the other direction when he saw the media.
Jimmy Garoppolo was at the #49ers facility today. He was on crutches, took two steps out of the trainers office into the locker room, saw it was during the lunchtime media availability and turned around.
— Matt Maiocco (@MaioccoNBCS) October 18, 2018
"He got back on Tuesday so since Wednesday he's been in all of the team meetings and stuff," head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Friday. "It's been good to have him around. He's still on his crutches and everything so he's not going out to practice or anything. But, it was good to see his face. Definitely, he's grown his beard out a little bit. You can tell he's been sitting in a hospital or a bed most of the time.
"It's good to have him back in the building. I know he's got to make a few more strides just healing from his surgery and things like that, and we'll get him around a lot more."
Garoppolo suffered the torn ACL on September 23 against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. How is he dealing emotionally with his recovery?
"He seems good," Shanahan said. "Seeing him in the meetings, just talking to him a little bit, I think he's happy to be back with the team and get back into this with us."
Shanahan has said before that he is hopeful Garoppolo can start throwing and doing some non-contact work by the time organized team activities roll around next June.
"It's always a little bit better when you're dealing with a quarterback and stuff as opposed to other positions just because you can get him in, hopefully, in 7-on-7 drills a little bit early and things like that, which help those guys get involved a lot faster," Shanahan said earlier this month.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that Garoppolo is expected to be ready for training camp next year.