Nick Bosa of the San Francisco 49ers avoided a major injury Sunday, and the cart-off of tight end George Kittle may have been injury hyperbole. However, the 49ers still don’t have an idea when star running back Christian McCaffrey will return, according to a certain update on his injury timeline by head coach Kyle Shanahan.

ESPN reporter Nick Wagoner posted Shanahan’s comments on X: #49ers coach Kyle Shanahan on how long RB Christian McCaffrey might miss with Achilles injury: “Nobody knows,” Shanahan said.

49ers RB Christian McCaffrey’s status a mystery

San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) watches injured from the sidelines in the second quarter against the New York Jets at Levi's Stadium.
David Gonzales-Imagn Images

Shanahan said the nature of the injury is part of the problem.

“We're dealing with tendonitis so, not one person knows,” Shanahan said. “He doesn't know. We don't know and take it day by day. By putting him on IR, it’s at least four weeks so it'll give him some time to rest and protect him from himself. Us too. No matter how he's feeling.”

Shanahan said he has not been told of McCaffrey needing any surgery at this point. McCaffrey said the situation has been tough for him, according to abcnews.go.com.

“I hate not playing,” McCaffrey said Wednesday. “But I look at it as a chess move and something that hopefully you can benefit from the rest of the season.”

Prior to this, McCaffrey had been strong and healthy with the 49ers. The stint on the IR is his first since joining the team. He had only missed one his first 33 games with the 49ers. And that came in a Week 18 game where the 49ers rested their starters.

Earlier, Shanahan said the team needed to be careful with McCaffrey, in a team transcript via nfl.com. However, the said McCaffrey would have played in Week 1 if higher stakes came into play.

“Definitely, I believe if it was a playoff game, he would've played,” Shanahan said .. “But it's not just the calf, it's the Achilles and the Achilles is tendonitis and that stuff comes and goes. When it is acting up, it's something you've got to be very careful about. Christian's very diligent about that stuff. And if it was a playoff game, he made it very clear to me, he believed he could go. But when you hear that type of stuff and it's not a playoff game and it's Week 1, and especially when you're dealing with the lower extremities like that it, it was a tough decision. But hearing all the words and stuff, in the long run it made it easy.”