Christian McCaffrey injury update: 49ers star RB limited for second straight day with calf, Achilles injury

The San Francisco 49ers began the week on a positive note as they gear up for the season opener. The first bit of good news was the end of left tackle Trent Williams' holdout as he and the team finalized a new deal . The second nugget that put a smile on the face of Niners Nation was that Pro Bowl running back Christian McCaffrey was returning to practice. While we saw him on the field beginning on Tuesday, his participation level was unknown due to the team not being required to release an injury report because they play on Monday night.

Well, over the last two days, they've since released multiple injury reports and they say the same thing about the defending Offensive Player of the Year. On both Thursday and Friday, the 49ers officially listed McCaffrey as a limited participant in practice.

McCaffrey had missed the bulk of training camp and all of the preseason after suffering a calf strain in early August. On top of the calf strain, head coach Kyle Shanahan revealed a bit more about the back's injury, adding the Achilles as part of what McCaffrey is recovering from.

Given McCaffrey's importance to the Niners offense, his status is a key storyline as the club gears up for the season opener against the New York Jets on "Monday Night Football." Simply having McCaffrey out there at practice -- albeit on a limited basis -- is an encouraging sign that he'll be full systems go to play out of the shoot.

"Christian's doing great," Lynch told KNBR's "Murph & Markus" on Friday, via NBC Sports Bay Area . "We got to finish the week here, but he looks like Christian -- and that's a good thing for us. He's looked like Christian out here at practice. We had a bonus practice because of the Monday night [game] and he was there. He was out there yesterday. So Christian's looking really good. Obviously, we want to see him progress through the week, but we had confidence that Christian would be ready and he's doing very well. He takes tremendous care of his body and takes so much pride in that. He'll be out there and ready to roll."

The 28-year-old is coming off a tremendous 2023 season where he won Offensive Player of the Year honors while also helping San Francisco reach the Super Bowl . He led the league with 1,459 yards rushing and 2,023 total yards from scrimmage. McCaffrey's 21 total touchdowns were also tied with Miami running back Raheem Mostert for the league lead.