The 49ers won’t have second-year defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw for the rest of the 2021 season. Head coach Kyle Shanahan on Friday said Kinlaw had knee surgery that will end his season after just five games.
Shanahan on Thursday said Kinlaw was in Los Angeles exploring his options for a knee injury that had impacted him since training camp and forced him to miss the season opener and the 49ers’ Week 7 game against the Colts. Kinlaw wound up going with surgery in hopes to benefit long-term.
“Yeah, Kinlaw ended up having a surgery,” Shanahan said. “They went in there and looked at the stuff, he’ll end up going on IR. He’ll be out this year. We’ll have an announcement on it, so there’s a lot of things that went into it that they found. But I think the good news is they feel they solved the problem. And obviously, it hurts, him not going to be with us this year. But just talking to the doctor and not me personally, but [general manager] John [Lynch] and our doctors talking to him. They feel, he feels that he found the issue and he thinks that’ll be good news for us next year.”
A knee problem was flagged by some teams ahead of the 2020 draft where San Francisco selected Kinlaw No. 14 overall. He missed two games last season, but it was clear it was going to be a bigger issue this year when he missed the week coming out of the bye.
Season-ending surgery hurts the 49ers’ interior depth in 2021, but Kinlaw figures to be a significant piece of their defensive line moving beyond this season. He was brought in to fill the DeForest Buckner role and his knee injury limited him from making a jump in Year 2.
If he can be healthy going into next year and take the step the team anticipated him making this year, he would prove to be a key piece of a defensive front that continues to spearhead their defense.
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