Jimmy Garoppolo hopes to be on the field when his San Francisco 49ers face the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. The quarterback isn't just dealing with the torn ligament and chipped bone in his right thumb suffered in Week 16. He sustained a right shoulder sprain in Sunday's Wild Card win against the Dallas Cowboys.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Garoppolo will be limited in Tuesday's practice. Before heading out to the practice field, the quarterback spoke with reporters and was asked how confident he would play on Saturday.
"We'll feel it out throughout the week," Garoppolo responded. "But yeah, just feeling good right now."
Garoppolo injured his shoulder in the second quarter at AT&T Stadium. That means he played through most of the game with the injury, which he admits contributed to some of his second-half miscues.
"Being a quarterback, it affects every throw," Garoppolo said. "It definitely had some impact, but if I'm out there, and I'm being put in that spot, I've got to still make the plays that I normally make. No excuses or anything like that. Just, this injury is what it is. We're all dealing with stuff now."
Ironically, the shoulder injury occurred because Garoppolo was trying to protect his injured thumb.
"Yeah, I just got thrown down, went to put my hand out, and sort of had in my mind if my thumb hit I didn't know what was going to happen," Garoppolo explained. "So I tried to, yeah, catch it with my elbow a little bit and just jam the shoulder up. Yeah, that was about it."
Garoppolo added, "It's a shoulder injury, so any type of throw, you're going to feel it. It's going to change things, but it's similar to when I was first dealing with the thumb. My body's learning and I have to adapt to it."
When asked which hurt worse, his thumb or shoulder injury, Garoppolo laughed and responded, "Yes."
