49ers’ Fred Warner says he has been dealing with a broken ankle injury since NFL Week 4 | News, results, highlights, statistics and rumors

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner says he has been suffering from a broken ankle since Week 4.

According to ESPN’s Nick Wagoner, Warner suffered the injury while playing against the New England Patriots on September 29th.

Since then, Warner has made seven straight starts, recording 33 combined tackles and two tackles for a loss.

Warner left the Week 4 win in the second quarter and didn’t come back to the game. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said after the win that Warner tried to get back into the game in the third quarter “but didn’t feel like he was able to.”

He missed several practices before a Week 5 game against the Arizona Cardinals, but returned in time for the game.

Warner told reporters on Wednesday that he received pain-killing injections before games in order to continue playing.

“It’s something I deal with before every game,” Warner said, according to David Lombardi of the San Francisco Standard. “I sit on this table before every game and get shot at every single game just to get started. That’s not an excuse. This is the NFL. You won’t be healthy… It was a fracture when I sprained it.” . Whenever you break a bone, the bone can’t heal itself if you keep playing on it.

Warner’s performance has suffered since the injury. He hasn’t posted a Pro Football Focus grade higher than 72.8 since Week 4 and earned his worst grade since 2021 with a grade of 44.7 against the Green Bay Packers in Week 12 (h/t USA Today’s Kyle Madson) .

The 49ers have a 5-6 record and have a 16 percent chance of making the playoffs before Week 13, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Should San Francisco be eliminated from the postseason, Warner could potentially decide to end the streak of 109 consecutive starts for the 49ers since entering the NFL in 2018.