Nick Moody returns to practice, Mario Manningham looking solid, according to report

The San Francisco 49ers are back to practice and there is some intriguing news coming out of the Wednesday session. According to the 49ers, linebacker Nick Moody has returned to practice. Moody suffered a hand injury Week 1, and was placed on Injured Reserve with return designation.

The short term IR designation was created to give teams some more flexibility with injuries. Under this designation, a player cannot return to the 53-man roster until at least eight weeks have passed. Based on that timeline, Nick Moody's first game back could be Week 10 against the Carolina Panthers, following their upcoming bye. This adds one more roster move for the 49ers to consider. At this point, Nate Stupar would seem like the logical release candidate.

In other practice news, Matt Barrows is reporting that Mario Manningham looked in good shape at the Wednesday practice. According to Barrows, Jim Harbaugh said it was possible one of the three NFI/PUP guys practicing (Manningham, Tank Carradine, Eric Wright) could be activated this week. There is no guarantee of that, but it is possible. If Manningham gets the activation, Marlon Moore would seem to be the most likely candidate to be released. That would make for an awkward end to the London trip.

I still think the 49ers wait until after the bye week to activate these remaining three, but we'll see what the weekend brings. If the 49ers do want to activate any of them in time for Sunday's game, the move would have to happen by 1 p.m. PT on Saturday.

Keep Reading:

• All-22 breakdown of the return of the read option
• Eric Reid, Donte Whitner injury updates
• Andy Lee named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week
• Jim Harbaugh discusses the Pollard-Staley fight
• The Booth Review - 49ers vs. Titans