49ers dodged more bullets with serious Week 2 injuries

The 49ers saw more players suffer injuries in Week 2 against the Eagles, but Kyle Shanahan reports only a handful of serious cases.

On his first regular-season NFL carry, San Francisco 49ers rookie running back Trey Sermon managed to plow ahead for 8 yards before being struck in the helmet by Philadelphia Eagles safety K’Von Wallace, resulting in a fumble and a scary moment where Sermon scantly moved after going down.

The fumble was ruled back in favor of an unnecessary roughness call against Wallace, yet it has to be a disappointing debut for the Niners’ Round 3 NFL Draft pick, who was a surprise scratch the previous week.

San Francisco experienced plenty of injury attrition at the position already, first losing No. 1 running back Raheem Mostert to a season-ending knee injury and then watching Sermon, Elijah Mitchell and JaMycal Hasty all suffer injuries in Week 2 at Philadelphia.

Fortunately, it appears as if the 49ers aren’t going to be dealing with a widespread injury issue to all three remaining rushers.

Kyle Shanahan tells reporters 49ers will be without JaMycal Hasty for ‘a while’

Of the three running backs injured in Week 2, Hasty’s injury appears to be the most serious. He suffered a high-ankle sprain on a late hit from Eagles EDGE Derek Barnett, which was also flagged as a penalty.

Along with defensive tackle Kevin Givens, who also suffered a high-ankle sprain and left the game early, head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Monday it’s likely those two will miss some time.

Mitchell, meanwhile, is considered day-to-day with a shoulder injury.

49ers, Trey Sermon lucked out with head injury

Sermon’s injury surely looked bad, and the replay looked even worse than the real-time video.

Fortunately, the end result is solely Sermon being in the concussion protocol. Bad enough, considering the seriousness of head injuries. But when factoring anything head- or neck-related, it’s not hard to understand why the hit could have generated far worse results.

“I was told just the protocol,” Shanahan said of Sermon’s injury. “I haven’t seen him personally, but our trainer said it was just concussion protocol. It was a scary one though.”

Related Story: Position grades, analysis from 49ers Week 2 win over Eagles

Shanahan also mentioned it likely recently acquired running back Kerryon Johnson, currently on the practice squad, would be elevated to the 53-man roster in advance of the Niners’ Week 3 Sunday Night Football game against the visiting Green Bay Packers.

Hopefully Mitchell, and perhaps even Sermon, will be made available for that game, too.

49ers hoping to get Emmanuel Moseley back soon

The other position at which San Francisco is experiencing injury attrition, cornerback, could be seeing reinforcements soon, too.

Shanahan mentioned cornerback Emmanuel Moseley is working his way towards coming back from a knee injury that has already sidelined him two games this season. The 49ers already lost No. 1 cornerback Jason Verrett to a season-ending ACL tear, putting more pressure on rookie corner Deommodore Lenoir and forcing the team to sign two veterans, Josh Norman and Dre Kirkpatrick.

Still, having Moseley back in the fray should help matters a lot.