Christian McCaffrey's Rehab to Ramp Up on Monday amid Injury, 49ers HC Shanahan Says

After missing the first three games of the season, San Francisco 49ers star running back Christian McCaffrey is set to ramp up his workload in rehab next week.

"Yeah, we'd like to start hitting his rehab here harder on Monday," 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said, per 49ersWebZone.com's David Bonilla.

McCaffrey is currently on injured reserve and the earliest his practice window can be opened would be ahead of San Francisco's Week 6 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks.

McCaffrey has been dealing with Achilles tendinitis since training camp and has yet to see the field this season. The star recently took a trip to Germany seeking treatment, which general manager John Lynch approved of.

"I think Christian knew of someone there," Lynch told Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher of KNBR (h/t Pro Football Talk's Ali Thanawalla). "He does a ton of research. Christian, he works as hard as anyone that I know and I think obviously he reaches out to us and we blessed it."

The 2023 NFL Offensive Player of the Year is coming off the best season of his career, recording 1,459 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns along with 564 receiving yards and seven touchdowns through the air.

While San Francisco would prefer to have its MVP-caliber running back on the field sooner rather than later, the Niners have gotten solid production from Jordan Mason, a third-year player who went undrafted in 2022.

Mason has the second-most rushing yards in the league this season with 324, already surpassing his 2022 and 2023 totals in just three games. He's also found the end zone twice.

But Mason's breakout season hasn't yielded a successful start for the defending NFC champs. The 49ers won their Week 1 contest against the New York Jets but have dropped back-to-back games against the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams.

San Francisco will have the chance to avoid losing three straight on Sunday when it faces the New England Patriots.