The 49ers have been waiting patiently for some injured players to return to the field, and head coach Kyle Shanahan says his team will never rush things.
Asked about wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, who will miss his sixth game on Sunday, Shanahan said the 49ers’ philosophy is that until they can measure that a player is back to 100 percent of the speed he was running at before the injury, it’s not worth the risk of re-injury to put him back on the field.
“He can run and hit certain speeds, but he hasn’t been able to hit his normal speeds that would allow him to come back,” Shanahan said. “We don’t let people come back until they can hit their normal speeds before they got hurt, or it makes them susceptible to injuries again. So we’re just waiting for him to hit those markers.”
Injuries have hit the 49ers hard this season, and the 49ers have also been slow and deliberate about allowing injured quarterback Brock Purdy to return. Mac Jones will start again on Sunday, and he won’t have Pearsall to throw to, as neither Purdy nor Pearsall won’t see the field until they’re at full speed.