Can returning players help salvage 49ers’ injury-plagued season?

The San Francisco 49ers are undoubtedly talented, but injuries may once again derail their season. Players are getting healthier, but will it be enough?

In what can only be seen as a case of deja vu, San Francisco 49ers fans are being once again subject to the horror of an injury-riddled season that threatens to cast a promising team adrift into the realm of NFL mediocrity.

Every week it seems at least one important player has to be sacrificed at the altar of the football gods, as the Niners struggle their way to 3-3 after the first six weeks following a 28-14 defeat to the Atlanta Falcons.

Read More: 49ers grades, analysis from injury-influenced Week 6 loss to Falcons

This week, it’s safety Talanoa Hufanga who finds himself in concussion protocol, right tackle Mike McGlinchey with a calf injury and cornerback Charvarius Ward with a groin injury who all left the field against the Falcons.

The 49ers, operating on a skeleton crew of starters, just couldn’t get any momentum going after halftime as they slumped to another loss to a team they should have defeated.

The good news is none of the three injuries are serious unlike some others that have happened this season, but the bad news is the schedule doesn’t get any easier with a game coming up against a Kansas City Chiefs outfit stinging at a loss against the Buffalo Bills.

The team doesn’t want to see the season go to waste, obviously. The NFC West has been fairly mediocre this season with the Niners somehow still atop the NFC West thanks to divisional victories over the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks, so there is some time to right the ship.

And there’s more good news in the fact a significant amount of reinforcements are just around the corner.

Ward and McGlinchey are day-to-day with their injuries while star players in tackle Trent Williams and EDGE Nick Bosa are looking ready to come back onto the field. Defensive back Jimmie Ward could also play with his broken hand in a playing cast, although that decision is yet to be made yet.

Time hasn’t run out, but the Niners certainly are feeling the NFC West on their heels. If they can somehow find a way to win against the Chiefs despite the injury report growing by the week, it could go a long way toward giving the squad a boost.

If the 49ers have to go through all 17 weeks like this, however, it’ll take a miracle to not have this down as another season blown up due to injury.