The San Francisco 49ers received good news a day before their first training camp practice. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo made the announcement on Friday.
“It’s officially official,” he said. “We’re good to go.”
The veteran quarterback was cleared to participate fully beginning Saturday after completing a long rehab following surgery in October to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
The injury occurred in the fourth quarter of a Sept. 23 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. He planted hard on his left leg to cut inside instead of out of bounds, and the knee buckled as he took a big hit.
Garoppolo was out for the remaining 13 games of the 2018 season. He finished 53 of 89 for 718 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions.
He began participating in organized team activities on a limited basis during the spring, including seven-on-seven and individual passing drills, while avoiding other team drills.
San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan said Garoppolo won’t be limited in training camp practices, according to an ESPN report. But the quarterback will continue to wear the titanium knee brace that helped protect him during the spring.
“Full go, he was doing seven-on-seven for all the OTAs, so he’s been pumped to get an offensive line in front of him and a defensive line,” Shanahan said. “So he’s more than ready to go.”
However, Shanahan on Friday ruled out Garoppolo for the preseason opener against the Dallas Cowboys on Aug. 10. Following that game, the team will determine how to use him for the rest of the preseason.
During the past six weeks, Garoppolo has spent the majority of his time training in Southern California with Tom House, a former major league pitching coach who has worked with a number of NFL QBs, including Tim Tebow, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Carson Palmer and Alex Smith.
“I’m really happy where I’m at,” Garoppolo said. “I think it was a very successful summer. I got a lot done, a lot of different things we wanted to work on and it’s really coming together. Now it’s time to roll.”
In 26 career games (10 starts) with the 49ers and New England Patriots, Garoppolo has thrown for 2,968 yards, 17 touchdowns and eight interceptions, completing 65.4 percent of his passes. This is the second time he has missed games due to injury; he sprained the AC joint in his shoulder in his second career start in 2016 and missed two games.
