Arik Armstead is slated to return to practice on Thursday, which is great news for the 49ers.
Since Week 14, Arik Armstead has not played for the 49ers.
The problem has been an injury to his foot and knee, mostly to his foot. It would seem to be considerable given the amount of time he has lost, but the major concern has been pain tolerance. And it appears that the exact problem that has reappeared is the plantar fasciitis that afflicted him throughout the previous season. Fortunately, the 49ers learned good news this week regarding Armstead, who is anticipated to resume practice on Thursday.
“He is improving. He performed well on the test today, so we’re going to start practicing with him on Thursday. If all goes well, we’ll start using him on Friday,” Shanahan added.
“We’ve been making an effort to get him as much sleep as we can. If we had required that, he would have left last week. He didn’t have to go last week, which is why we were so happy that we were able to obtain that. Just give him one more week; he’s already doing better today than he was a week ago. With any luck, the extra week will allow him to gradually acclimate to this and improve even more in the coming week.”
Armstead’s return and the knowledge that he could have persevered through it all last week if needed, are huge advantages for the 49ers. His absence has contributed significantly to the lack of a potent run defense and some decline in pass rushing effectiveness. As long as Armstead continues on his current trajectory, he should be ready to play when the 49ers play in the divisional round of the playoffs.
This development just serves to highlight how crucial it was for the 49ers to secure the NFC’s top seed. Armstead is given the opportunity to be closer to full strength so they can get more snaps and effectiveness out of him rather than pressuring him into a game where it would be uncomfortable.
The same goes for all of their players who are currently working their way back from injuries.