Was Jimmy Garoppolo's Ankle Injury Worse than the 49ers Let On?

Garoppolo's injury might have been worse than a high-ankle sprain, and could still require surgery.

Grant Cohn | Feb 3, 2021

Cryptic news from an unlikely source about Jimmy Garoppolo.

NBA Insider and former Bay Area sports writer Ric Bucher recently tweeted that the high-ankle sprain Jimmy Garoppolo suffered Week 2 against the New York Jets last season might be worse than the 49ers originally let on.

"Whatever it’s worth for my NFL peeps," Bucher tweeted, "severity of Jimmy Garoppolo injury is why 49ers are in market for QB, not just dissatisfaction."

This would suggest that Garoppolo's injury might have been worse than a high-ankle sprain, and could still require surgery.

In December, head coach Kyle Shanahan characterized the injury as a severe high-ankle sprain.

"We've had a number of high ankle sprains on our team this year, but Jimmy's was definitely the worst," Shanahan said. "That's why we thought he was going to need surgery for a little bit, but he didn't. That's why he needs longer rest than most of the people."

Around the same time, running back Raheem Mostert characterized Garoppolo's injury as more than just a high-ankle sprain.

"Some are more severe than others," Mostert said. "like Jimmy's for example. He was dealing with a high-ankle sprain, but I believe that it was a little bit more than that, and that's why he hasn't been able to play."

Interesting.

Here's what Garoppolo said about the injury in January:

"It's not at a hundred percent, but it's really just about getting reps at this point. Getting endurance back to it, the durability and everything. I think once we do that, it'll be in a good spot. So, I'm pretty happy where I'm at."

So the injury wasn't 100-percent healed in January, and it may not be healed now. Which means Garoppolo has had a high ankle sprain since September. Quite unusual.

Maybe he has something worse than a high-ankle sprain, and the rest of the league knows it, and that's why the 49ers haven't traded him yet.

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Published Feb 3, 2021

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.