It took Jimmie Ward one play to break his hand Sunday in Carolina. He needed one additional play to realize it was broken. The injury may not wind up costing him any time though.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan on Monday in a conference call told reporters the club is still determining how much time the veteran free safety will miss, if any.
“Jimmie Ward has a broken hand, he’ll get surgery tomorrow,” Shanahan said. “We’ll have an update after his surgery on how much time he’ll miss.”
While it doesn’t seem feasible that a player could operate on an NFL field with such an injury, Shanahan said there’s a possibility they wrap the surgically-repaired hand and Ward suits up Sunday in Atlanta.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Shanahan said. “There is a chance, so that’s why we want to see how the surgery goes and figure out if he could do that after it.”
Ward opened his 2022 debut on special teams for San Francisco and broke his hand on that play. He then lined up in the box as a third linebacker on the Panthers’ first offensive play. That was the last action he’d see.
“Yeah, it happened on the opening kickoff,” Shanahan said. “So he did it on the first kickoff and in Jimmie Ward style, he just truly didn’t want to accept that it was broken, so he stayed in there for the next play, a couple plays and then finally realized it was. Actually, that happened to him on the first play versus Tampa Bay in 2018 also, so it was just unfortunate and hopefully the surgery will go well and he’ll be able to come back and help us, but it was just a bad break he got.”
The 49ers could certainly use Ward in their secondary with a tough stretch of games coming up against the Chiefs, Rams and Chargers after they visit the Falcons.
Ward missed San Francisco’s first four games with a hamstring injury and was activated off IR prior to Sunday’s game. He is eligible to return from IR again if he does wind up landing there again, though it’s clear the 49ers are hopeful he can avoid a long-term absence.
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