Earlier this week, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall was placed on the Reserve/Non-Football Injury List, meaning he will miss at least the first four games of the season after suffering a Attempted robbery about jewelry in downtown San Francisco this past weekend.
However, things are moving in the right direction for the receiver, as he was seen back on the field at practice this week, hanging out with his teammates.
What is the latest on Pearsall’s status as he hopes to return to the field soon?
“It was just incredible to watch him,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said Thursday. “Seeing him on Sunday and Monday, being able to walk and stuff, talking to the people in the emergency room who say out of about 100 people, two survive. And seeing him the next day and just seeing him being able to walk, coming to meetings, he’s doing all that.”
“But he wants to go a while, about a week, without breaking a sweat. And after that he will start rehab and develop further.”
The 49ers immediately allowed Pearsall back in the team after the incident, which was obviously a wish of the wide receiver, but also gave him his space while he recovers.
“I think when someone goes through something like that, everyone cares about them so much, but I told the team that everyone wants to show them that they care, and then what do you do? You go to someone and ask them how it happened and stuff,” Shanahan said. “It’s a pretty traumatic story and I told the team that we don’t want to put him through that 80 times.”
“So he knows how much everyone cares about him. He loves being around him. It’s totally up to him in that regard. But everyone’s trying to give him space in that regard and just let him work through this process because the physical is one thing, but it’s also a pretty big mental burden on someone.”
Funnily enough, Pearsall has hinted to Shanahan that he could even come back this weekend against the New York Jets, but the 49ers are making sure the receiver doesn’t come back too quickly, hence the decision to place him on the NFI list.
“I think (not bringing him back too quickly) is important,” Shanahan said. “Especially the mental aspect is becoming more important every day. The adrenaline and survival. Ricky says things that don’t matter at first, like, ‘I still think I could play against the Jets.’ Those are the things he talks about, and then he says, ‘Dude, what are you talking about? There are other things.'”
“But the adrenaline of all of that. And then I think he’s reliving that every day and what his family had to go through for a couple of hours, just flying here not knowing exactly what was going to happen. I think that’s hard for him or anyone. When the adrenaline wears off, it becomes a much bigger deal. And that’s what I mean by everyone kind of respecting that. Because we all feel the same way and we try to make him relive that as little as possible, but it really is an incredible story.”
Pearsall will miss the first four games of the season, but there are signs he will return at some point this season. The 49ers will be cautious in making this decision as he works his way back into the team.
