San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said this week there is an "outside chance" that starting left tackle Joe Staley (fractured fibula suffered during Week 2) could play on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. Although, the team's Thursday game against the Arizona Cardinals on October 31 — Halloween night — is more likely.
That's why Staley is getting some limited practice work this week. There won't be much of an opportunity to ease back onto the practice field on a short week after Sunday's game.
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Shanahan joined KNBR on Thursday and provided a few injury updates, saying that wide receiver Deebo Samuel is likely to be on the field against the Panthers.
"Joe, we're still holding out hope," Shanahan added on the "Tolbert, Krueger and Brooks" show, "but I would say it's an outside chance for him. Hopefully, we'll get him by Arizona. I'm not ruling him out (against the Panthers) yet, but most likely that will be Arizona.
"And then the rest of the guys that we're waiting on to come back (Ahkello Witherspoon, foot; Mike McGlinchey, knee; Kyle Juszczyk, knee), hopefully, we'll get them after the Thursday-night game when we get a little bit of a longer week, and we can get them here for that Seattle Monday-night game (on November 11)."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.