The San Francisco 49ers’ top two running backs, Christian McCaffrey and Elijah Mitchell, are dealing with injuries heading into Sunday’s NFC Championship Game at the Philadelphia Eagles.
McCaffrey aggravated a calf injury during last Sunday’s 19-12 divisional round playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys while Mitchell sustained a groin injury.
San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan termed both running backs as day-to-day on Monday during a conference call with reporters.
Shanahan also said defensive end Charles Omenihu (oblique) is day-to-day.
“We’re expecting to get them all back for Sunday,” said Shanahan, “but we’ll see how it goes through the week with practice and everything. Hopefully it’ll go well and that’ll get them ready for Sunday.”
Mitchell rushed for a game-high 51 yards on 14 carries against Dallas. McCaffrey rushed for 35 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries and caught six passes for 22 yards.
McCaffrey admitted after Sunday’s contest that playing against the Cowboys was a bit of a struggle physically.
“I was fighting but made it through, made it through great,” McCaffrey said.
McCaffrey rushed for 746 yards and six touchdowns and caught 52 passes for 464 yards and four scores in 11 regular-season games for the 49ers after being acquired from the Carolina Panthers in mid-October. He was superb in the NFC wild-card round when he gained 119 yards on 15 carries and added a TD catch in a 41-23 rout of the Seattle Seahawks.
Mitchell was limited to five regular-season games due to two knee injuries — one to each knee — and had 279 yards and two touchdowns. He had just 2 yards on nine carries versus Seattle but had a touchdown grab among his two catches for 25 yards.
Omenihu had a career-high 4.5 sacks during the regular season.
–Field Level Media