Once again, Jason Verrett's season has ended prematurely. The San Francisco 49ers ruled him out for Sunday's regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Rams. Head coach Kyle Shanahan revealed that the veteran cornerback will undergo surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff, a procedure that typically involves four to six months of recovery.
"He was going to play a lot," Shanahan said of the plan for Verrett against the Rams before the injury. "Yesterday, he landed on his shoulder, and he has to get rotator cuff surgery. We all know he tore his ACL in Detroit, Week 1, on that turf. It took about a year-and-a-half to get back from it, and he got his Achilles just on air, last year on the field.
"He was practicing his butt off all week. We were going to play him a lot in this game. He's been awesome here this last month, and he jumped up for a ball and just came down on his shoulder in an awkward position. It happens to a lot of guys, so it's crushing for him, but it's also a shoulder injury. It wasn't like a knee or a leg, but you do have to get surgery for that stuff. So he found that out this morning."
Shanahan noted that Verrett continued to practice after the injury, giving the team hope that it wasn't a serious setback. The team wanted to schedule an MRI to determine the severity of the injury.
"He was hoping not to, so he's like, 'No, I think I'm good,'" Shanahan said. "And he slept on it. Came in this morning, and it was still hurting, so we got the MRI, and it showed he had a tear and needed surgery."
It's yet another significant setback for a player whose career has been plagued by injuries.
When asked how Verrett handled the news, Shanahan said, "We talked to him right when it happened. He handles it like he does everything—like a man. But I know how it is. He's going to be pretty down for a little bit, and I hope he hangs around here because we all love him around here. I think that could help him, and this will pass like it always does.
"He had a long road to get back to this point, and I just told him I can't believe how good he's looked. I didn't think it would ever be possible to come back from what he has, which [is] all the knees and the Achilles and everything, and he did. He looked great in Houston. He looked great here.
"It was a perfect opportunity for him to play this week just so he could play a lot and see how he was going into the playoffs, and he got a random shoulder injury and just try to put in perspective for him. It's not like you got your knee again. It's not like you got your Achilles or anything. That's something you can come back from. But I don't think that's stuff on his mind right now."
