San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo had surgery on his torn ACL Wednesday morning, and it sounds like everything went well — or, as well as one can expect given the situation.
Fooch’s update: Kyle Shanahan said on Friday morning (on KNBR) that it was as good as could be expected, and the rehab should be a straight forward ACL rehab.
On Wednesday, head coach Kyle Shanahan said the surgery was happening that day and they would know more once it was complete. On Thursday evening, general manager John Lynch had an update for KNBR. Lynch talked to the surgeon and got a positive report about the surgery.
“It went well. I did talk to the surgeon today — you always hear from your trainer and your medical people, but I wanted to hear it myself. And I got a great report. I won’t go into details other than — although, I can tell you I never had a surgeon say, ‘It went real bad.’ … But I have had surgeons concerned after surgery, and that wasn’t the case at all. He was very pleased with the way it went. One of those deals again, where it looked better, because sometimes you see some things on MRIs you don’t know. It was a good repair, and they’re very optimistic about the prognosis for his future.”
The big thing to take from the surgery is that it appears to have been strictly an ACL tear. He could have torn one of the other ligaments (MCL, PCL, LCL) or his meniscus, thus complicating the rehab process. The other ligaments impact stability, and so knowing that he apparently does not have anything else but the ACL, it simplifies the rehab process. Lynch did not specifically say there were not other issues, so this is an inference based on his comments and reports since the injury.
This successful surgery with no apparent complications improves his chances of being ready at the start of or early into training camp. Barring any unexpected setbacks, it would seem safe to assume he would be good to go for Week 1 of the regular season.
No two injuries are the same, but we can potentially compare him to Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz. The Eagles QB suffered a torn ACL on December 11, 2017, but surgery also revealed a torn LCL. Wentz was cleared for full team activities on August 19, 2018, and made his return to game action in Week 3 (September 23). Garoppolo’s injury happened on September 23, so if the rehab process goes well, this bodes well for getting Jimmy Garoppolo back on the field in time for Week 1 next season.