San Francisco 49ers left tackle Joe Staley left last week’s preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings in the first quarter with a knee injury. However, it’s apparently nothing significant enough to affect his availability for the start of the regular season.
According to Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan indicated the team expects him to be fully ready for the team’s regular season opener against the Carolina Panthers next week.
“I think it scared him more than anything and I know he’s got some stuff in there,” Shanahan said. “I know he wanted to fight through it and I’m sure he could have, but he landed a little awkwardly on it. You could see it if you saw it on the end zone copy. We just wanted to be safe with him and we’ll take it safe with him this whole week up to Carolina, make sure he’s 100 percent when we start that game.”
A closer look at the injury after the game confirmed the team’s initial thoughts regarding the injury.
“Yeah, it was like we thought, [it] came back good,” Shanahan said. “He’s obviously got some tendonitis and things like that in his knee, some wear and tear. But we feel good about it and we think he’ll be good by Week 1.”
The 32-year old Staley is one of the few long-tenured 49ers still around following the change of front office and coaching staffs this offseason. He’s started 143 games for the 49ers over 10 seasons after being a first-round pick out of Central Michigan in 2007. He’s a five-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time second-team All-Pro selection.