Michael Crabtree injury: Surgery and potential timeline starting to leak out

The information is coming fast and furious following news that Michael Crabtree suffered a torn Achilles. A bit ago, Adam Schefter tweeted that during the exam yesterday, doctors believed the injury would sideline Crabtree for six months. If that were the case, that means Crabtree could conceivably be back in late November. Schefter's report was followed by a Chris Mortensen tweet that Crabtree had in fact already undergone surgery on the Achilles.

I spoke with socalisteph given her medical knowledge, and she said such surgery often happens as much as a week after the injury so swelling can go down. In this case, a quick surgery would seem to mean swelling is not an issue. More importantly, the quick surgery would hopefully mean the 49ers are somewhat optimistic about Crabtree's potential return during the season. It doesn't guarantee a return, but if there is a chance and a quick surgery will not create further risk, why not do it?

The 49ers will have to consider their roster options as the season approaches. The 49ers have to figure out what to do as far as the physically unable to perform list and the injured reserve with return designation. The new IR rule is not entirely clear at times, so I'm doing more research on that. A player cannot be placed on IR with the designation return until after the preseason. I'm not quite sure how that jives with a player on the PUP list, but I'm looking for more details.

Either way, the 49ers have a few months to figure out the next step with Crabtree's roster status.