Jimmie Ward could miss the first four games of the season. The San Francisco 49ers safety has been dealing with a hamstring injury he suffered during training camp.
"A little worse than the other guys, so he's going to be [out] some time," head coach Kyle Shanahan said on August 15, adding that the safety missing regular-season time was a possibility.
Before Thursday night's preseason finale against the Houston Texans, 49ers general manager John Lynch said that Ward was likely headed for the short-term injured reserve list. That means he would need to remain on the active roster beyond Tuesday's roster cut-down deadline to 53 players. If the 49ers placed Ward on injured reserve before then, it would be season-ending.
After the August 30 deadline, the 49ers could activate Ward from injured reserve after the first four games of the season. That would make him eligible to return for Week 5 against the Carolina Panthers, at the earliest.
He did. It means he'd have to miss the first four weeks of the season. Will be interesting to see who starts at FS tonight. George Odum got a lot of work there during week. https://t.co/kJMxfeYvWT
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) August 25, 2022