Mitchell On Schedule to Return for 49ers Season Opener; McGlinchey Could Miss it

Kyle Shanahan says Elijah Mitchell is "on schedule" to return for 49ers season opener, while Mike McGlinchey has "a chance" to miss it.

A bit of positive and negative news from the 49ers today. First off with the positive news is that Elijah Mitchell on track to be fit and ready for the 49ers regular season opener against the Bears.

"Yea, he is on schedule. We won't get him this week, but things are looking to have him back for Week 1," said Shanahan.

Mitchell has been nursing a hamstring injury since Aug. 12 when the news was broken by Adam Schefter of ESPN. The injury put a halt to any preseason action that Mitchell was going to receive with the hope that holding him out for its entirety would help him be available for Week 1 of the regular season. Looks like their course of action worked well as Mitchell should be good to go when the 49ers visit Chicago.

As for the negative news, Mike McGlinchey, who suffered a knee injury in the first preseason game against the Packers, could miss Week 1.

"I think there's a chance because they haven't told me a 100 percent for sure," said Shanahan. "I mean, they're pretty optimistic about it. We took it real slow with him and then he had that setback in the game, it wasn't the exact same injury but it was still on the same leg, so we wanted to take it slow with him. We rested him last week, we're gonna rest him this week and we'll ramp him up next week and see how the pain tolerance is."

Being extra cautious with McGlinchey is the only avenue the 49ers have to take here. They cannot afford him to worsen his injury and end up missing more time than he needs to. Ultimately, McGlinchey's status for Week 1 is a toss up. It's very blurry right now and it won't become clear until after the week McGlinchey gets back on the field. There is time to get him up to speed and healed so long as the 49ers continue to take great care.