Fooch's Update: Sounds like a hamstring. Josina Anderson tweeted:
Source familiar with #49ers WR Michael Crabtree on his undisclosed injury that will sideline him for now: "I think he has a sore hamstring. Nothing too serious right now." The source added, "I think they want to hold him back a bit to be cautious."
San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh met with the media Friday morning, and he had a chance to address Michael Crabtree and Brandon Lloyd's respective injuries. The two players were absent from Thursday's practice, and according to Coach Harbaugh, both are likely going to miss a week or two of practice. He confirmed Crabtree's injury was NOT connected to his foot or his Achilles, but would not get any more specific.
It is obviously disappointing to lose them from the practice field, but I'd much rather have it happen now, early in camp. If it happened midway through camp, if it dragged on for whatever reason, it could easily lead into the regular season. Injuries now could certainly still drag on, but there should be enough time to get both back to 100 percent before the end of the preseason.
On Thursday, 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman was effusive with his praise of Crabtree's work to date in camp:
"Mike’s looked really, really good starting into the spring. Think he’s in great shape relative to what he did last year. He came off the Achilles injury and just really gutted it out the end the year. I don’t have this as a fact, but I don’t know that everybody would’ve played that early coming off that injury, but he wanted to get out and help the team. Didn’t make a lot of fanfare about it, just toughed it out. That’s just the kind of guy he is. He’s looking sharp."
Ideally, Crabtree is back in time for the second or third preseason game. He gets some additional work with Kaepernick, and things get off to a quick start Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys. For now though, this opens the door for Quinton Patton and Bruce Ellington to get more work. Patton has quietly had a solid camp (per Chris Biderman), while Ellington is just now getting back into practices. More reps can only help them.
I've embedded the Twitter media list below, so you can check out some of the other comments Coach Harbaugh made during his press conference.
Tweets from https://twitter.com/NinersNation/lists/niners-media