{"id":413460,"date":"2026-01-15T00:25:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/413460\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T00:25:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:25:30","slug":"fred-warner-injury-49ers-star-lb-returns-to-practice-could-play-in-divisional-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/413460\/","title":{"rendered":"Fred Warner injury: 49ers star LB returns to practice, could play in divisional round"},"content":{"rendered":"

A major reinforcement could be on the way for the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> defense. Just over three months after he suffered a devastating ankle injury<\/a>, linebacker Fred Warner<\/a> returned to practice on Tuesday. And, shockingly, he is not ruling out availability for Saturday’s divisional round game against the Seattle Seahawks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Such a speedy recovery is a remarkable feat for Warner, who was initially deemed out for the season when he broke and dislocated his ankle in Week 6 against the Bucs. Warner underwent surgery after teammate Ji’Ayir Brown<\/a> rolled up on his leg and twisted his ankle at an awkward angle.<\/p>\n

“We’re taking it day by day,” Warner said Wednesday<\/a> when asked if he anticipated playing this weekend. “I think they said last week they weren’t going to open my [practice] window, and then my window is now open. So we’re just taking it day by day.”<\/p>\n

Warner was part of the wave of injuries that devastated the 49ers early in the year. Defensive end Nick Bosa<\/a> was lost for the season due to a torn ACL he suffered in Week 3, and key contributors including quarterback Brock Purdy<\/a> and Ricky Pearsall also missed time. Star tight end George Kittle<\/a> saw his campaign come to a close in the Wild Card round when he tore an Achilles tendon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the poor injury luck, San Francisco stands just two wins away from the Super Bowl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Warner returns to the lineup this weekend, he would bolster a defense that seems to be rounding back into prime form. The 49ers surrendered a modest 19 points to the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> in the Wild Card round and gave up just 13 points to the Seahawks in the season finale. But things have not always been so bright in Warner’s absence.<\/p>\n

“I feel amazing,” Warner said. “Just so grateful, blessed to be back. I think, obviously, when all this happened, I didn’t really think about the possibility of returning in-season. But the way things progressed and being able to have this opportunity to be back with my teammates, have a chance at helping them win this week and so on and so forth, that’s my only goal moving forward.”<\/p>\n

While the injury dashed his chances of securing first-team All-Pro honors for the fourth consecutive year and fifth time in six seasons, Warner has a chance to rewrite an otherwise lost season. He is one of the best linebackers in the NFL<\/a> and would contribute immense amounts of leadership and playmaking ability to the middle of the defense if he suits up before the postseason run is over.<\/p>\n

“Fred’s the ultimate energy-giver, so just having him out there is awesome,” defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said<\/a>. “Yesterday was a little bit more tempo down, but today obviously with higher tempo it’ll be fun to get him out there, see him running around.”<\/p>\n

Warner had not missed a game in his career prior to the injury. If he does not play again this year, he will finish with a career-low 51 tackles, two tackles for loss and three passes defended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major reinforcement could be on the way for the San Francisco 49ers defense. Just over three months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[218591,64,63,6583,14134,218590,218587,218588,19977,593,218592,36526,1262,218589,1254,85],"class_list":["post-413460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-49ers-vs-seahawks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brock-purdy","tag-fred-warner","tag-fred-warner-49ers","tag-fred-warner-injury","tag-fred-warner-injury-updates","tag-george-kittle","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-playoffs-49ers","tag-nick-bosa","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-49ers-injury-updates","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}