Christian McCaffrey injury update: Here’s when star running back is targeting his 49ers return, per report

The San Francisco 49ers lost another running back on Thursday night, with fill-in starter Jordan Mason exiting Week 6’s victory over the Seattle Seahawks with a shoulder injury. They’ll have to make do, however, because it’ll likely be at least another month until Christian McCaffrey is back, according to NFL Media.

The reigning Offensive Player of the Year, who’s battling Achilles tendinitis in both legs, was technically eligible to return for Thursday’s matchup after already missing four games while on injured reserve. Behind the scenes, “the target, in the eyes of McCaffrey and the 49ers,” per Ian Rapoport, has been getting “him back to practice at some point in that window” between Week 7 and Week 8, ahead of a Week 9 bye.

The 49ers (3-3) play host to the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 20, then play host to the Dallas Cowboys a week later. Ideally, Rapoport added, McCaffrey will have had several weeks to practice by the time San Francisco rests up on its bye, enabling him to return to game action in Week 10 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Nov. 10. That, however, is only an estimation, with ESPN recently indicating that neither McCaffrey nor the 49ers truly know when the star running back will be healthy enough to take the field.

McCaffrey, who led the NFL with a career-high 1,459 rushing yards in 2023, has yet to take a single snap for the team this year. Made the league’s highest-paid running back this offseason, he endured a significant injury history prior to landing with the 49ers in 2022, missing a combined 23 games from 2020-2021.

Mason has excelled as a runner in McCaffrey’s absence, leading the NFL with 609 yards in six games as the emergency starter, but didn’t finish Thursday’s game due to his own injury. The 49ers’ other options at running back are Isaac Guerendo, who had a late 76-yard run against the Seahawks, and Patrick Taylor Jr.