San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is reportedly in the process of gathering multiple medical opinions before he makes a decision on whether to undergo ankle surgery, according to ESPN’s Nick Wagoner.
Garoppolo is expected to miss anywhere from six weeks to the rest of the season following his latest high right ankle sprain injury.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan told the media that Garoppolo’s ankle sprain was “essentially a whole new one, just on the same foot,” and this sprain is considered more serious than the one he suffered in Week 2 when the 49ers took on the New York Jets.
“When you have those high ankle sprains, you reinjure them a lot,” Shanahan said. “But it was different the way that he did it, so it’s basically doing it all over again in a different way. … Whatever’s best for him, long term, is obviously what we’ll decide on. But if he does need the surgery, then it’ll be all year; if not, then hoping six weeks, get a chance to get back at the end.”
Shanahan was asked if he felt that Garoppolo was brought back to the field too soon from the first ankle sprain, but responded that he believed it wasn’t the issue.
“I don’t regret bringing him back any of the times,” Shanahan said. “Obviously, the way the Miami game went, if I could’ve seen that before the game, we could’ve avoided bringing him back, but I thought he gave us a real good chance to win and we didn’t think he was risking injury by going further with it and he didn’t. That’s why he was able to come back the next two weeks even healthier. But he redid something in the Seattle game and it was bad … it ended up being worse than we thought.”
Garoppolo is expected to land on the injured reserve in the not so distant future, which means he will be out for the at least the next three games.
The Niners are also dealing with an injury to tight end George Kittle, who suffered a fracture in his foot. Kittle already missed two games this season due to a sprained knee.
“I think they told me eight weeks,” Shanahan said. “Kittle says two but that’s how he rolls. But that’s why he’ll go on IR. If it’s better than what they’re saying then he’ll have a chance to come back this year, but eight weeks is eight weeks.”
