49ers receiver Deebo Samuel will play Sunday against the Lions. The questions are: How much and how much contact can he sustain?
Samuel, though, insists he’s not worried about protecting his injured left shoulder.
“I ain’t protecting nothing,” Samuel said Friday, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com.
Samuel played only nine offensive snaps against the Browns in Week 6 before a left shoulder injury — later determined to be a hairline fracture — forced him out for the rest of that game and the next two. The 49ers lost all three.
He played only nine offensive snaps Saturday against the Packers before a hit to the same shoulder sent him to the sideline for the rest of the game.
But medical testing Sunday revealed only a deep bruise, Samuel said.
“At the time, it was hurting really bad,” Samuel said. “I was kind of scared a little bit. I thought I had fractured again, and I was just all over the place. In a big game like that, I had millions of emotions on the sideline, trying to kind of hold them together for my team.”
Samuel said he spent most of the week in the training room, getting treatment to get where he is today. He was a full participant in Friday’s practice.
“It was kind of painful at the time, but as the week went on, [the training staff] did a good job, getting all the pain away, getting all my motion and strength back, and I feel like they did an outstanding job,” Samuel said.
Coach Kyle Shanahan said “it’s huge” to have Samuel. How huge?
The 49ers averaged 7.1 yards per play with Samuel and 5.7 yards per play without him this season.
