Among many other prominent players on the team, Christian McCaffrey remains sidelined for the 49ers. He is on injured reserve while recovering from the Achilles tendonitis which has affected him since the summer. 
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McCaffrey went to Germany earlier this week to consult with a specialist as he and the team aim to find the best route regarding his recovery. It remains to be seen when he will be able to approach a practice schedule (and therefore become a candidate to be designated for return). A ramp-up period could begin soon, however.
“We needed to quiet it down,” 49ers GM John Lynch said when discussing McCaffrey’s Achilles during a KNBR appearance. “The plan was to give it the time to do that and then at some point in a thoughtful way to ramp him back up… What he does and where he goes, he’s got people who work on his body and have for a long time… Now he’s back here and we’ll have to hit certain markers and try the ramp up.”
Having been moved to IR ahead of Week 2, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year will not be eligible to make his 2024 debut until Week 6. Considerable progress will need to be made for that timeline to be feasible, and the team will no doubt proceed with caution in McCaffrey’s case. He is far from the only professional athlete to travel to Germany while rehabbing an Achilles injury, and the fact he went there suggests he may have received an orthobiologic treatment.
Such treatment consists of stem-cell and platelet-rich plasma injections and is specifically focused on accelerating the healing process for injuries such as Achilles tendonitis. Dr. Kenton Fibel (the Anaheim Ducks’ medical director) recently spoke about the specifics of orthobiologic treatments – which are not FDA approved but are permitted by North American professional sports leagues – and how receiving one would impact McCaffrey’s recovery timeline.
“Usually whenever you’re having some sort of a biologic procedure for a tendon, particularly an Achilles tendon, typically that’s going to require you to have enough time to rest and protect the tendon after the procedure,” Fibel said (via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle). “And then start to progress things forward while the tissue has a chance to biologically start to heal and restructure… With some of these more important weight-bearing tendons, it’s pretty safe to say that they’re not returning within the first four weeks of the procedure.”
If McCaffrey did indeed receive an injection while in Germany, it will be interesting to see how he and the team proceed with a gradual ramp-up period. If not, further rest could be in store before a return to action becomes realistic. While he recovers, San Francisco will continue to rely on Jordan Mason and Isaac Guerendo in the backfield.