Christian McCaffrey injury update: 49ers RB ‘feeling fine,’ but questionable

Christian McCaffrey feels like he’ll be able to play for the 49ers in their season opener, but Kyle Shanahan isn’t so sure. The running back is currently questionable against the Seahawks Sunday.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported McCaffrey was limited at practice and it’s more of a precautionary thing. But, the head coach was non-committal on the star back.

McCaffrey was hampered by injury last season, as was San Francisco as a whole. Fowler reported the team did not want a repeat of 2024.

“Christian McCaffrey wants to play on his half injury. He’s feeling fine,” Fowler said on SportsCenter. “He says he’s good to go. It’s more of an injury prevention thing. However, Kyle Shanahan has not committed to playing McCaffrey. He’s listed as questionable. So this could shape up to be one of those game time decisions. Just considering his past, how things went early last season on that calf, they want to take it slowly with him. So he was limited Thursday, and an issue popped up, sort of flared up Friday. 

“He did some stretching, some light running, but ultimately did not practice. And so this is a situation where the 49ers are putting a lot of their hopes on McCaffrey because they love the way he plays. It’s going to be great when he’s out there, but they don’t want to have another setback, so we’ll see how it goes. They’ll monitor it throughout the weekend. They have Brian Robinson Jr, who they traded for recently. They feel good about their depth, but they want CMC back.”

McCaffrey’s latest setback comes after Shanahan made a lofty prediction for the 2025 season. He predicted his star running back, who appeared to be back to full strength, was gearing up for a big year as he looks to bounce back.

“I like to watch how a guy moves and how he is out there, and I see Christian looking the same as he always has looked,” Shanahan said on KNBR. “So, I don’t really think about that number [his age] when it comes to that case. Now, if he started looking different, then I’d probably start questioning some things, and then I’d probably be looking at how old he is or look at that 30 thing.

“But Christian gives us no reason to think that. He came in healthy this year. He had a hell of an offseason. He’s had a hell of a training camp, and I believe that’s going to lead to a hell of a year.”

The 49ers brought in some running back depth this year behind Christian McCaffrey. They made a deal with the Washington Commanders to acquire Brian Robinson, who came in ahead of Isaac Guerendo on the initial depth chart earlier this week.