Niners Nation
The story of the 2025 San Francisco 49ers is still being written. Saturday night, the 49ers will take on the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field with an NFC Championship game berth on the line. There is no two ways around it. This season will be remembered for the injuries to impactful players like Nick Bosa, Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Fred Warner, Mykel Williams, and a laundry list of others during the season.
Is there any rhyme or reason to the injuries? Is it simply bad luck? Does the team practice too hard? Is the training staff doing their job? With no clear answer to any of these questions, a new conspiracy theory about electrical substations near the practice facility has taken on a life of its own.
I had a chance to sit down with Dr. Nirav Pandya of 95.7 The Game to discuss the injuries to the players and whether there is any data suggesting the substation is contributing to the 49ers’ injuries and recovery time.
So let’s start with the obvious one, Fred Warner, who is not gonna play but was running around in practice.
Doc, tell me how surprised you are by his timeline because his ankle was facing the other way 90 days ago, against the Tampa Bay Bucs. How is this possible? Is there a hyperbolic chamber, or is this just somebody who is built a little bit differently?
Yeah, no, that’s a great question. You know, I think for a lot of people, you get to about, you know, around three months, we know pretty predictably.
The bone’s gonna be healed if there’s a ligament injury that’s gonna be healed. But how quickly athletes can get their strength, their mobility, how quickly that comes back, that varies a lot. So for most people who aren’t rehabbing, every day can be a year-long process. For a lot of athletes, it can be up to six months, but for whatever reason, just the type of athlete he is, the way he is been attacking his rehab, he’s definitely progressed, um, to where he is doing stuff out on the football field.
I would’ve expected when you saw that injury, probably more like four to five months. But clearly his body has responded really well, has been able to progress to this level. And now the real question is, is there enough time to get him ready for potentially a game next week? ‘Cause obviously now the reports are, he is not playing this weekend.
Now, the question that I think I have, and a lot of people have, is whether there is any sort of risk for further re-injury, or possibly something down the line that would complicate his future as a 49er? Like rushing back a little bit too early. Is it something that possibly he’s pushing himself a little too hard, I guess?
Yeah, no, I think the 49ers wouldn’t have progressed into doing these things if the bones, the ligaments, weren’t healed. Right....
