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49ers RB Christian McCaffrey Has Achilles Tendonitis in Both Legs

Now it's clear why Christian McCaffrey went to Germany for treatment on his Achilles.

Grant Cohn

Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; 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. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images
Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; 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. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images / David Gonzales-Imagn Images
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Now it's clear why Christian McCaffrey went to Germany for treatment on his Achilles.

He doesn't merely have Achilles tendonitis. He has bilateral Achilles tendonitis, which means he has it in both legs. NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco reported this Sunday on the 49ers Talk Podcast.

It's unclear whether both Achilles' have been injured all offseason or if McCaffrey originally injured one of them and then injured the second one later on. Keep in mind, last year Dre Greenlaw had Achilles tendonitis for months and then ruptured his other Achilles in the Super Bowl. Sometimes one Achilles injury leads to another.

Either way, McCaffrey is in a tough spot. He needs to make sure he's 100 percent recovered before returning to action because it sounds like he's at risk of tearing both of his Achilles. So the more rest he can get, the better.

Unfortunately for him, the 49ers are entering Week 5 of the regular season, so he's running out of time. That's why head coach Kyle Shanahan said the team intends for McCaffrey to start doing physical activity this week. They hope that he can gradually increase his workload until he's ready to be activated from the Injured Reserve List in the next few weeks.

Going to Germany for treatments that aren't legal in the United States always felt like a Hail Mary move. We'll see if they can prevent McCaffrey from having yet another setback that keeps him out for the rest of the season.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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