49ers GM John Lynch explains Germany visit – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

Christian McCaffrey is back from Germany and now the 49ers' star running back will see if the Achilles tendon treatment he received there has the desired effects.

General manager John Lynch gave an update on McCaffrey's recovery from Achilles tendonitis during an appearance on KNBR's “Murph and Markus” show Friday morning.

“I think at the end of the day, after we put him on injured reserve, we wanted to enforce some kind of discipline on everyone because when you have tendonitis, that's basically inflammation that broke out,” Lynch told Brian Murphy and Mark Boucher. “Bilateral Achilles tendonitis. That’s why we had to calm her down.”

“So the plan was to give him the time to do it. And then at some point to start it up again in a carefully considered way. So what he does early on and where he goes, he has people working on his body and doing that.” We worked on it for a long time and consulted with him and now Christian is back here and at some point we will come back, we have to certain Achieve goals and we'll try to ramp up and God willing it's calmed down and we can rebuild it in a really smart and thoughtful way.”

McCaffrey has yet to play in the 2024 NFL season as he battles calf tightness and Achilles tendonitis. The 49ers placed him on injured reserve before their season-opening win against the New York Jets.

While McCaffrey can technically return after Week 4, he is expected to miss additional time.

While he tries to get his injury under control, McCaffrey, along with Lynch and the 49ers, decided to fly to Germany to see a specialist.

“I think Christian knew about someone there,” Lynch told hosts Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher. “He does a lot of research. Christian, he works as hard as anyone I know and I think he obviously reached out to us and we blessed it.”

But Lynch and the 49ers won't rush to get the 2023 NFL Offensive Player of the Year.

“We obviously need to be really clear that we (Christians) want to go back,” Lynch said. “He’s a game-changer for us, but we want him to come back healthy. And that's why we're going to take as much time as we need. I don't think anyone knows right now and we'll start that process somehow. “Now that he's back, we can get together again and see where he's at and then we'll work out a plan together. This plan has just been created, but we will put this plan into action and update it as needed as it progresses.

“But at the moment we have hopefully calmed things down to some extent and can now start rebuilding.”

In McCaffrey's absence, third-year pro Jordan Mason has stepped in admirably, racking up 324 yards in three games, good for the second-most yards in the NFL after Week 3.

And while Mason has played well, the 49ers need McCaffrey back for their offense to function at its best.

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