Niners’ Alex Smith To Undergo MRI On Injured Shoulder

Added on Oct 25, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

As if the San Francisco 49ers season couldn’t get any worse, they may be down a quarterback following a shoulder injury to Alex Smith. Smith suffered the mishap in San Fran’s loss to Carolina when 275 pound Charles Johnson landed on top of him after a sack in the third quarter. The concern is that the shoulder is separated–a condition Smith knows well since it cut short his 2007 season. The only ‘silver lining’ this time around is that its in his non-throwing shoulder.

The Niners play their next game against the Denver Broncos in London, England and Smith is planning to travel with the team and get the MRI done in the UK. He’s fearing the worst:

“It’s definitely the AC, I think. It’s very similar. But I don’t know to what I extent. There’s not really much to say right now.”

Smith was referring to the ‘AC’ or ‘acromioclavicular joint’, the fancy medical name for what gets tweaked when you separate your shoulder. He said the injury was ‘deja vu all over again’:

“You come down with all his body weight on that one point. I knew as soon as I landed on it. Same feeling, same pain.”

Since its his non-throwing arm, however, he’s hoping that he can get back in the lineup quickly if its not too serious:

“The left hand doesn’t do much. It doesn’t really affect throwing. If you can take snaps and hand the ball off, I think you can still be pretty functional.”

Mike Singletary didn’t really have much to say about the injury since without the proper medical information to guide his decision its just speculation at this point:

“As of right now, we’ll have to wait and get an MRI. We’ll see how that works out and go from there.”

Veteran David Carr came in to replace Smith and looked awful, completing just 5 of 13 passes for 67 yards and throwing a late game interception with the score tied that set up a winning field goal for the Panthers that broke a tie game. Singletary and his team are very likely glad to be leaving the country for awhile with the Niners at 1-6. San Fran has struggled in several areas, but much of that record is a combination of bad luck and failure to take advantage of opportunities–4 of the 6 losses are by 3 points or less.