The San Francisco 49ers are no stranger to injuries.
They’ve been arguably the most snake-bitten team in that department over the last few season. Some believe it’s because of the substation that’s located right next to Levi’s Stadium. Others believe it’s because the team just simply has bad luck when it comes to its conditioning.
Whatever the reason is, coaches and fans have to be concerned with the trend they’ve seen with former first-round pick Ricky Pearsall, who missed six games as a rookie and eight games last year due to a combination of injuries and a gunshot wound he suffered during the offseason.
Ricky Pearsall Could Miss Entire 2026 Season
GettySan Francisco 49ers WR Ricky Pearsall is battling a PCL injury days into training camp
Pearsall left practice just two days into 49ers training camp with concerns over a PCL injury he was battling last season.
49ers beat reporter Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area says the concern over Pearsall’s condition is so serious that the team is likely preparing for Pearsall to miss all of this season as he gives his knee time to recover.
“This doesn’t look good either,” Maiocco said. “The [PCL] injury often times heals on its own, and that was the expectation last year. He injured that thing, he came back and kind of reaggravated it, and he had a difficult time shaking that. … It doesn’t appear as if [it healed on its own]. After the first few days of training camp — he ran all the routes, he wasn’t limited in any fashion — he experienced swelling in that knee, and now it’s kind of back to the drawing board.
“If surgery is required, he’s going to miss the entire season. … The reason the 49ers didn’t push the envelope and have him get surgery earlier in the offseason is because the expectation was that it could heal on its own. … I think that they made a calculated attempt to hope that thing would heal on its own like it often does, and once it didn’t, now it’s time for the 49ers and Ricky Pearsall to decide what they want to do.
“… At this point, I think it’s reasonable, rational, logical for the 49ers to not expect Ricky Pearsall to make any contribution in 2026.”
Surgery Seems to be Pearsall’s Likeliest Option
GettySan Francisco 49ers WR Ricky Pearsall has been injured in each his first three years in the NFL
The Athletic’s Matt Barrows and Vic Tafur reported on Thursday morning that for Pearsall to recovery properly, he was presumably looking at needing surgery to fix his PCL.
“Pearsall injured his PCL in the same knee in Week 4 last season, forcing him to miss six games and at times bothering him after he returned,” Barrows and Tafur wrote. “The 49ers are concerned. Pearsall was set to start opposite newcomer Mike Evans but might now be looking at surgery.”
Maiocco stated Pearsall didn’t have PCL surgery in February or March because if he did he likely would’ve missed the 2026 season, and the 49ers were holding out hope taking the summer to rest would’ve allowed Pearsall’s PCL to actually recover.
But now that the injury is flaring up again, perhaps it’s time to fix the issue altogether and have Pearsall punt on 2026 in hopes of being ready to go in 2027. Because the 49ers drafted De’Zhaun Striblng in the second round in April, they’ve better positioned to absorb the blow of losing Pearsall long-term.
“Now, if you have that surgery, you’ve got to look ahead,” Maiocco added. “This is his third year in the NFL — if they wait and wait and wait and try to play through it, then maybe the surgery is required and maybe that cuts into his 2027 season. … It really kind of amplifies how important it was for the team to select De’Zhaun Stribling where they did with the 33rd overall pick.”
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