Elijah Mitchell headed to the injured reserve for 6-8 weeks with an MCL sprain

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan met with the media, and it was not the news the team had hoped for. Running back Elijah Mitchell will miss 6-to-8 weeks with an MCL sprain. Shanahan expressed optimism about the injury after yesterday’s game but said the plan would be to place Mitchell on the injured reserve with the hopes he could return later this season.

The NFL changed its rules so players can go back on injured reserve and return for a second time. Each time counts toward the limit of eight. So, Mitchell would make six after his first stint, Azeez Al-Shaair, Colton McKivitz, Jordan Willis, and Curtis Robinson.

Christian McCaffrey will be managed day-to-day with what Shanahan described as knee irritation. That means it’s Jordan Mason time, and perhaps even Ty Davis-Price worked back into the mix.

Right guard Spencer Burford has a sprained right ankle. It’s a lateral sprain, so Shanahan seemed confident that Burford wouldn’t miss time and return later this week.

Jimmy Garoppolo came out of the game without a major injury, which was a sigh of relief for Shanahan: “It was a relief that no serious injuries came up. He was pretty sore today, but hopefully, he’ll work that out by Wednesday. Nothing serious.”

Shanahan dropped a line about the refs not calling the same types of hits for Jimmy as they would on other quarterbacks.

Arik Armstead will return to practice Wednesday and is trending toward playing Sunday against the Dolphins: “Armstead had a really good week last week. He was real good yesterday, and we’re hoping to get him at practice Wednesday.”