There didn’t appear to be anything wrong physically with 49ers rookie quarterback Trey Lance after his first-career start. He took some hits, but told reporters he felt fine despite a busy day featuring 16 rushing attempts. That changed in the evening though per head coach Kyle Shanahan, who told reporters in a Monday conference call Lance suffered a sprained knee that will keep him out for one or two weeks.
The issue didn’t crop up until the evening when the 21-year-old rookie started having an issue with his left knee, and an MRI confirmed a sprain that puts his availability for Week 7 against the Colts in jeopardy.
Lance in his debut carried a team-high 16 times for 89 yards and spent much of his day evading pass rushers and scrambling. While he downplayed the effect of the amount of hits he took, it’s not a surprise that an issue cropped up.
San Francisco is off for their Bye in Week 6, and then they’ll go into Week 7 for a Sunday night showdown with the Indianapolis Colts. While Jimmy Garoppolo is supposed to be the starting quarterback in that game, there’s uncertainty surrounding his availability because of a calf strain. Now this knee sprain could leave the 49ers in dire straits at the most important position on the field going into a stretch of games where they need to stack up some wins.