Christian McCaffrey Status Injury Updated as 49ers' Kyle Shanahan Denies Absence Is Contract-Related

Amid speculation that Christian McCaffrey's injury is actually a hold-in, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan cleared the air on the situation.

Shanahan said that speculation about McCaffrey not practicing for contract-related reasons "would be wrong." He added that McCaffrey would have practiced on Tuesday if it wasn't a joint practice.

McCaffrey has been dealing with what the team described as "tightness" for much of training camp, but Shanahan said early on that it wasn't a major concern and his absence from practice was mostly precautionary.

"My concern would be him toughing through tightness, like a lot of people do, and then hurting something bad, and then pulling something, which then, it could be a month," Shanahan told reporters. "That would be our concern, so once we hear him talking a certain way, Christian's a guy who needs to get prepared for Week 1. But also, we're pretty confident in what he's done before, we're confident in what he's done these two weeks, and we just want to make sure we don't make it something to be concerned about."

Of course, that didn't keep those in NFL circles from speculating about a potential hold-in. Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio noted on Monday that some believe McCaffrey has not practiced as he tries to get a reworked contract.

McCaffrey's injury came just after Falcons running back and Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs reset the market with new contracts that pay them $22.5 million per year.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported Monday that there "maybe was" a check-in about McCaffrey's contract at some point during the offseason, but he added that he "doesn't get the sense that it went anywhere."

Fans can seemingly rest assured that McCaffrey isn't going to miss any time because of his contract this season, but his recent injury is at least something to monitor.