SANTA CLARA, Calif. – San Francisco 49ers rookie quarterback Trey Lance is expected to miss about a week with what coach Kyle Shanahan called a “little chip” in a finger on his right hand (throwing).
In statements to the Bay Area media on Monday, Shanahan revealed that what Lance initially thought was a stuck finger turned out to be a little more after undergoing additional imaging tests earlier in the day.
Lance suffered the injury with 15 seconds left in the first half of Sunday’s preseason finale against the Las Vegas Raiders. In the play, Lance threw incompletely through the right side line, but hit his right hand on the helmet of Raiders striker Max Richardson.
Shanahan refused to specify which finger the “chip” had, but Lance was seen favoring his right index finger after the play.
“It didn’t bother him much because I thought it was just stuck in that helmet, and then when you get all the pictures in there and they showed it to me, it’s a microchip of a bone that’s out,” Shanahan said. “[It] it’s a small chip fracture, which is worse than a traffic jam … You can’t take snapshots and do all these things right now, so we have to rest it for seven days, they say, and that should make it work. cure and I hope it will be good next Monday when we get into practice. “
Lance was able to stay in the game during the first unit of the third quarter before handing over the reins to third-string quarterback Nate Sudfeld. After the match, Lance said he wasn’t even sure what play it was, but that he wasn’t too worried about it being anything serious.
“I think I ran into him with a helmet or something, but I don’t care,” Lance said Sunday. “We’ll see how it feels tomorrow when we can explain a little more, but we’re not too worried.”
Lance is in an interesting quarterback scenario with starter Jimmy Garoppolo. Shanahan used Lance and Garoppolo in a sort of platoon for Sunday’s game, a possible forerunner of how they could deploy when the season begins.
In his three preseason games, Lance was 19 of 41 for 276 yards with three touchdowns, an interception and a rushing score.
If Lance can come back next Monday, he won’t really be missing much in practice. With four preseason games left, the Niners have no games until the opening game against the Detroit Lions on Sept. 12.
The 49ers will practice Wednesday and Thursday and then have the weekend off before returning to work on Monday when the actual preparation for the Lions begins.
“We’re just going to get two good practices, we’re going to work all week, so when they get there on Monday, it’s probably going to be when we start giving them part of the game plan,” Shanahan said.