The San Francisco 49ers were, by far, the most injury-plagued team in the NFL last season. Head coach Kyle Shanahan is trying to avoid a repeat of the team's poor luck.
Offensive lineman Justin Skule and safety Tarvarius Moore both suffered serious injuries during Monday's practice. Skule went down with a torn ACL while Moore suffered a torn Achilles. Skule is done for the year, and Moore could be as well.
Weeks earlier, the 49ers lost Jeff Wilson Jr. to a freak injury. The running back suffered a torn meniscus while in the locker room. He is expected to be out until midseason.
The recent losses prompted Shanahan to cancel the remainder of the offseason program, allowing his players to enter their offseason break early and foregoing next week's scheduled mandatory three-day minicamp.
Shanahan spoke with reporters on Wednesday and shared some details about the injuries to his three players.
"Jeff got hurt sitting down in a chair in the locker room," Shanahan said. "And he got out of it, and his knee got in an awkward position. Obviously, it was a freak unfortunate accident. T-Moore hurt his Achilles on air. No one was by him. He backpedaled, and he went to go break forward, and it just gave out. Skule, in a pass protection drill, going against someone, put his foot down, and his knee just buckled. Three unfortunate injuries. Two on the field.
"I think the hard thing was, the two on the field, we had a clean camp. No one got a serious injury like that. Then we had two guys in three plays with Tarvarius and Skule. So, that was a little depressing."
Last year's injuries didn't wait until the start of the season. The 49ers dealt with several losses during the offseason, which was limited due to the pandemic.
"It's always you hate seeing that, but last year, we didn't have an offseason, and we lost four people before training camp started," Shanahan continued. "We lost Deebo (Samuel) to a broken foot in the offseason. We lost D.J. Reed to a torn [pectoral]. We lost Teez Tabor to a broken foot. We lost Richie James to a broken wrist. Those were all outside of football, so that's part of life.
"We got two people hurt on the field in OTAs, seven practices. It's very unfortunate because those two guys were having a great practice, and Jeff got hurt before it started."
The 49ers will return to the practice field at the end of July after players report to training camp.