San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Trent Taylor has been trying to work his way back from a foot injury suffered during a practice before the start of the season. Head coach Kyle Shanahan, while speaking to reporters on Saturday, didn't sound very optimistic about the receiver's potential for a return this year.
Shanahan was asked if Taylor had a second surgery following the infection after the first.
"Yes," Shanahan responded. "The first surgery, you're hoping [the recovery] took about four weeks just to clear that up with Trent. So everyone knows, you do a surgery, you hope it takes about four weeks. His bone did heal, which was good, but the stuff around it got very irritated from a screw he had in there, so we had to do the surgery over again, which would have been another four weeks, which gave him a chance to be back. It's just, that's what doubled it up.
"And then after the second surgery, two weeks into it, when they take the cast off to put a new one on, just to see how it was, it was infected. So then they had to start that over again. Once he had the setback from the second surgery, it was just going to go to Week 8 instead of Week 4. But then, once the infection happened, then he really got behind the eight ball.
"It's been as unfortunate as a guy could have. I know he's pretty upset about it. That's why I don't expect him back this year, but I know he will be back here next year, and we are very glad he will be."
General manager John Lynch also wasn't very optimistic about Taylor's potential for a return.
"'Hopeful' is the word," Lynch said during a KNBR interview this week. "'Optimistic?' Probably not, and we'll see where that goes."
The 49ers can bring two players back off of injured reserve and have four players eligible. The others are defensive lineman Kentavius Street, wide receiver Jalen Hurd, and cornerback Jason Verrett.
Hurd is expected to begin practicing with the team soon, Shanahan revealed earlier this week.
"He's got a chance to come back in," Shanahan said. "The first time we can activate him to practice, I think, is next week, the Arizona week. So, we'll see how this week goes, and we'll make that decision next week. If he's not ready by then, then it will be week-to-week to give him that chance to open up that three-week window."
Taylor landed on injured reserve on September 20 while Hurd ended up with the designation on October 3.
