San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan joined Bay Area radio station KNBR for his weekly Thursday interview and naturally fielded questions about the status of star running back Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey was placed on injured reserve on September 14 due to Achilles tendinitis, making him ineligible to play until at least Week 6, when the 49ers face the Seattle Seahawks.
Earlier this week, Shanahan confirmed that McCaffrey traveled to Germany over the weekend to consult a specialist about the injury but admitted there was no new update on his condition. During Thursday's radio interview, Shanahan was asked when he expects to know more about the running back's status.
"I think we'll get a better idea here over the next couple of weeks," Shanahan said. "The whole point of putting him on IR is to guarantee that we couldn't do anything for at least four weeks. And two weeks into it, the whole point was just to rest him for two weeks and not do that.
"And now, we're going to start hitting the rehab harder and trying to get him back into football stuff and see how it responds. So we'll see how he responds here. We've let him rest here for a couple of weeks."
Shanahan also downplayed the significance of McCaffrey's recent travel itinerary.
"Christian's just seeing every specialist he can, doing all the little stuff that Christian does more than anybody I've ever been around," Shanahan explained. "He is of full-time commitment to everything for his body year-round. And so, he's been doing that stuff while not pushing it hard in rehab.
"And now, we'll probably turn it up here in the next couple of weeks. I know he still has at least two more weeks before we could have an option to play him, and we'll start testing that out sooner than later."