By admin 
Christian McCaffrey returned to the practice field Sunday and downplayed his near two-week absence from 49ers training camp.
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McCaffrey participated in full-team drills and looked unencumbered while taking a number of carries in his first action since Aug. 10. The team said he had been dealing with unspecified “tightness.”
“Obviously, when you don’t practice, the way the media works now is firestorm,” McCaffrey said. “But it was kind of part of the plan from the jump. (It) was to ramp up pretty big, get nine, 10 practices in, kind of come back down and then ramp back up so we’re fresh for the duration.
“So our staff’s done a great job of coming up with specific plans. Again, I feel great. I feel fresh, and it’s good to be back out there.”
McCaffrey is coming off leading the NFL with a career-high 413 regular season touches last season while appearing in all 17 games for the first time since 2022.
To McCaffrey’s point, any time his name comes up in injury news it makes waves online and in the fantasy sports community. He missed time during training camp in 2024 and played in only four games after it was revealed he had been dealing with bilateral Achilles tendinitis. He tore the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in his fourth game back that ended his season.
The 2023 Offensive Player of the Year appears on track to play in the opener Sept. 10 against the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia. He said he’s been working with the team’s performance staff about hydration and sleep plans for the trip. The 49ers will arrive a week before the game to get acclimated.
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He also said monitoring his practice reps has been standard for him dating back to the start of his third year with the Carolina Panthers.
“Obviously, you want to learn from the past. Going through a full training camp is a lot of work,” McCaffrey said. “I’ve monitored my practice schedule since 2019. I remember Norv Turner used to kick me out of practice in Carolina just because. He would say, ‘Go find shade.’
“Sometimes I could probably be my worst enemy with how much I just love being out there. I want to run, I want to go, I want every play. I’m a competitor. I love it. I think when you have people smarter than you that understand not just what you’ve been through but what we’ve been doing during the season. It’s about being fresh for the duration. It’s about 17 Sundays and God willing more weeks after that.”
McCaffrey is one of three running backs who recently returned to practice, giving the team its full complement for the first time this weekend. Rookie Kaelon Black returned last Tuesday after missing time with an adductor injury and Jordan James returned Saturday after breaking his finger.
“Definitely a talented room and pumped to be a part of it every day,” McCaffrey said. “We want to push each other and compete with each other. But that room is a fist. … It’s been a lot of fun working with those guys.”
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